The Love We Chose After Breaking

by Al Konda

There are poems that come from memory,

and poems that come from imagination—

and then there are poems that come from the place inside you

that finally stops pretending.

The Love We Chose After Breaking was born there.

Not in triumph.

Not in certainty.

But in that quiet moment after pain,

when you realize that walking away would be easier,

and yet something in you stays.

This poem is about that choice.

Not the poetic one, not the romantic one—

the human one.

The choice to keep showing up

even when you are bruised by the very love you’re trying to hold.

The choice to speak the truth,

even when silence would protect you more.

The choice to stay in the room

when every past wound whispers that leaving is safer.

I’ve learned that love is not made out of perfect nights

or effortless harmony.

Love is made out of the mornings when you wake up and think:

“I could retreat today…

but I won’t.”

It’s built from the tiny, unremarkable gestures—

the hand that reaches without thinking,

the apology that costs more than it sounds,

the decision to understand instead of defend.

This poem is not about two flawless people.

It’s about two people who have broken,

and broken each other,

and still refuse to turn those breaks into excuses to vanish.

Leaving can feel like mercy.

Staying can feel like work.

But sometimes the work is where the soul grows.

I wrote this poem for anyone who has loved after disappointment,

for anyone who rebuilt something they were once certain was gone,

for anyone who knows the strange tenderness

of choosing a person even when you feel incomplete.

Love is not about being whole.

It is about being willing.

And sometimes, that willingness is the most beautiful thing we ever offer.

Read the full poem and analysis tomorrow 02nd: https://alkonda.com/2026/01/02/the-poem-of-the-day-82/

With love,

Al Konda