Life is too short to deny yourself love.
By Emily Ratay — Written on Mar 09, 2018
Expressing the feelings you have about someone can be incredibly hard to do, especially if you’re not always the type of person to lay out your feelings and emotions as they come.
But even if you are that kind of person, it can still be hard to say I love you or I care about you to someone that means a lot to you.
I think we can all say with certainty that there has been a time in our lives when it was too hard to express our feelings for someone (or for ourselves). We either resorted to not saying anything at all or tried to drop hints in hopes that they would understand what you meant.
You know how people say that keeping things in for too long can cause a lot more problems in the future? Maybe you’ve never heard that, but life is too short to live it with things left unsaid and undone.
Life and love should always be a little bit scary. Because that means you’re living it well beyond your comfort zone (which is where all the fun is).
Tyler Kent White’s poetry reminds me of these sentiments.
He writes about so many things. But one reoccurring theme is love.
Not just love, though. Tyler writes about how hard it is to have a heart so full of love for someone and not be able to express yourself properly.
Have you ever been so in love with someone that you get tongue-tied and it feels like your stomach has butterflies every time they’re in the room? That’s what the love Tyler writes poems about feels like it could be.
Tyler Kent White was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, where he was a part of a big, close-knit family and a strong community of women. He was the first male born into his family in 46 years (how crazy is that?!).
But while he was technically an only child, Tyler says it never felt that way because he was always able to spend time with aunts, cousins, his mother, and his grandmother. So, even at a young age, he was able to understand the importance of love and closeness.
White began writing poetry and short stories so far back that he doesn’t really remember when he first started. Since then, Tyler feels like he hasn’t really hit any obstacles along his path as a writer and poet.
“Learning how to conquer my negative voices, how to write when the desire is not there, and how to find confidence when the subject matter scares me have all been the biggest things I have overcome.”
Writing isn’t always easy, but you’d never guess that when reading his poetry; it flows so beautifully and seamlessly that you can’t help but wonder how he does it so well.
One of the things to admire most is that White's not only aiming to relate to and comfort others with his poetry; he tries to make himself happy, too.
Writing for yourself can be an understated concept. If you were never going to share your words or feelings with others, would you still be proud of what you’ve written?
“If I can create one piece of writing that saves, alters, improves, or just brings a smile to my face then I know I’ve done everything I ever set out to do when I started sharing my work.”
Tyler Kent White's inspired by the peripheral; something that helps him write about strong emotions he feels without getting too clouded in the specifics or writing about it directly (something he has a hard time doing).
Whenever he feels these strong emotions about someone or something, he uses it to fuel his writing, but not become the subject of it.
“If I feel love, I will think about friends, family, or strangers I see, and write about a love they may experience or that I just create inside my head. I think this allows me to be far enough away from my own emotion to where other people can relate and feel it, as well.”
Tyler Kent White hopes to continue to develop as a writer and eventually release a book about an introspective view of what it’s like to be a man in today’s ever-shifting society.
"I think it's important as a man to be introspective and explore the feelings I have and put them to paper... I think as men there's an opportunity to turn the lens onto ourselves and explore what we are, what we aspire to be, and where we can grow from here. There's nothing wrong with she/her poetry if it comes from an honest place, but I'd just like to start a new trend where we start looking at one another and ourselves and writing our story, rather than the story of women (there's too many talented poetesses who can write their story better than we ever could!)"
Until then, you can read his poetry on his Instagram page, as well as in his newest book, Songs with Our Eyes Closed.
1. I may not be able to express just how much I love you, but I do love you.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"But I do know there are not enough syllables to spell out how much I love you. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love… You are my every moment, my every hour, my every day, my every season, and I know this isn’t poetry and it’s certainly not a haiku, it’s just all the things I needed to say to you.” – Tyler Kent White
2. Let’s create our own fairy tale.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"The love we were promised in fairy tales was never something for us to find. It has always been something for us to create.” – Tyler Kent White
3. Sometimes, the best way to say I love you is the simplest way.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Would you believe me if I said you were three shades short of all my favorite hues and that I’ve been trying for years to pick words from my garden throat in attempts to explain to you all the things I can’t explain. Or what if I said I have nothing to say other than I love you in the simplest of ways.” – Tyler Kent White
4. You will always be my first choice.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Above all else, I would choose you. When there’s no more grand gestures, no more words to say, when everything around us begins to give way, when the sky grows dim and the colors fade, I will choose you.” – Tyler Kent White
5. I am certain that you are the love of my life.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"I know the sun rises in the eat and sets in the west, that I am ten fingers and ten toes and ten thousand reasons short of explaining what it is I can’t explain to you. And I know that I will always love you in certainties.” – Tyler Kent White
6. We together are love.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Love is simple: It is waking up knowing you exist in a mind outside of your own. It is having one heart that carries two beats. It is you and me spoken in terms of us and we.” – Tyler Kent White
7. I’m looking forward to falling in love with you over and over again, every single day.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"And of all the things I look forward to in life, falling in love with you is at the top of the list.” – Tyler Kent White
8. You are my favorite daydream.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"You are the daydream I am supposed to have for the rest of my life.” – Tyler Kent White
9. I choose you to always be by my side.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"I choose you, again and again at the start and finish of every single day, no matter the season, no matter the age. I choose you to struggle and succeed with, to fight and wake up with, to love and grow old with. I choose you, knowing there are still trails we must travel, knowing there are mountains left to climb. I choose you to always be by my side.” – Tyler Kent White
10. One day.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"One day I will kiss you, kiss you with lips that understand, kiss you with lips that can better explain, that can speak in so many languages. They will know how to say I love you in ways you have never heard, in ways that sound unlike anything any other man has mouthed before, false promises and fairy tales they did not ever believe in. One day I will kiss you, pressed words between your lips. I will kiss you and they will rattle between your teeth, run down your throat, and fill your lungs. They will echo against your ribs, they will reverberate through your limbs, they will dress every corner you’ve kept sadness hidden away until all that grows inside of you is the understanding that you are enough. One day I will tell you all about my paper napkin theories, algorithms I formed that demonstrate how the sum of all that you are, is greater than infinity, but to me you have always been the one.” – Tyler Kent White
11. You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"To me, you’ll always be the rising suns, the sinking moons, and all the stars that come between the sound of rain and river stones, the warmth of my sheets, the ache in my bones.” – Tyler Kent White
12. Whenever I’m missing you, I just listen to the ocean’s song.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Anytime I want to feel closer to the ocean, I just lay by your side and listen to the waves ebb and swell in every breath you give and take, and feel each one crash inside of me. I knew from the first time I saw you that whoever said empty shells carried the ocean’s songs had never met you before.” – Tyler Kent White
13. Love for yourself is just as important as love for others.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"You deserve to give yourself the same love that you give to everyone else.” – Tyler Kent White
14. I want to know everything about you.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Like all things vast and beautiful, I want to know the depths of which you exist. It has never been enough to wade in the shallows.” – Tyler Kent White
15. Everything changes when you’re in love.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"I thought about writing a poem explaining how when you are lost at sea, even if you are rescued and survive, you never really come back. Then I realized everyone that’s ever been in love would already understand.” – Tyler Kent White
16. Let’s make a world together where our love can grow.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"You be the clouds above, I’ll be the grass below, and everything in between will be where our love will grow.” – Tyler Kent White
17. How can I articulate just how much I love you?!
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Not everything I write will be a masterpiece; I know that. It is a process selecting words to convey feelings never meant to be spoken. So maybe I’ve been searching for what’s already been said and this is the finest way I can say it. I love you, in everything I am, I love you.” – Tyler Kent White
18. Imagine how fun it’ll be to be as in love as we are now when we’re old.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"When I am old, weather-worn, and grey, I want to fill my lungs with your perfume and hear your laughter echo through our home as we dance alone in our living room, drunk off wine, still madly in love.” – Tyler Kent White
19. You are the brightest part of my darkest places.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"When you doubt the brilliance of your shine, I will take you through my darkness. I will show you where you shine the brightest.” – Tyler Kent White
20. You are the center of my universe.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"The universe, at any given point, in any given time, is expanding indefinitely in all directions. So trust me when I say, ‘you are the center of mine.’” – Tyler Kent White
21. Just because one love is over doesn’t mean there isn’t another one just around the corner.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Love is knowing every goodbye has a hello on the horizon.” – Tyler Kent White
22. You are my home.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"This morning I woke with my ear pressed between shoulder blades. Every inhale, every drum, every pump, thump of your heartbeat said one thing – home, home, home.” – Tyler Kent White
23. Love is boundless.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Love cannot be defined, reduced, or ignored. It exists just the same for me, for you, for everyone.” – Tyler Kent White
24. The book of us is just beginning.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"They ask me how I love you and I say in pages, in novels, in volumes. I love you like my favorite story, the one that I wake up to every day and watch unfold. And I don’t know how it ends, but I know your name is already written in the chapters of my life that I have yet to live.” – Tyler Kent White
25. It’s always been you.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"You are the fever that never broke, the name stuck in my throat. You are every letter of every word in every poem I ever wrote.” – Tyler Kent White
26. I’ve seen god in you.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"I know that god is real. I have seen him smile through the sunlight as it dances across your skin and lays gently at your feet.” – Tyler Kent White
27. Love always conquers hate.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Love is not the absence of hate; hate will always exist. Love is holding our head high and forever moving forward with kindness and compassion in spite of what hate may bring, because no amount of darkness can drown out our light if our light has been lit within.” – Tyler Kent White
28. You are more beautiful than you know.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Come to me, wild and untamed. Bring the oceans on your lips, the mountains on your spine; I want to explore all the places you have ever called home. Let me pluck each petal from the gardens you’ve grown, overcrowded seedlings pushing up through your bones. Come to me dipped in the stars, come to me wearing all your scars. I want to show you just how beautiful you are.” – Tyler Kent White
29. Loving yourself is SO important.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"She woke up every morning with the option of being anyone she wished. How beautiful it was that she always chose herself.” – Tyler Kent White
30. I continue to fall in love with you in little ways.
Instagram: tylerkentwhite
"Some days, your perfume falls from your skin and settles in the staircase. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped on the fourth step and felt all the ways I’ve fallen in love with you.” – Tyler Kent White
Emily Ratay is a full-time writer living in Pittsburgh. She's passionate about the environment and feminism, and knows that anything is possible in the right pair of shoes. She plans on writing a non-fiction book in the future.
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