For more love poems, check out our Love and Sad Poems.
These love poems by Maya Angelou all have a sense of quiet longing, a theme that runs through much of her work.
When You Come
When you come to me, unbidden,
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.
Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,
I Cry.
A Conceit
Give me your hand
Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.
Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.
For me
Give me your hand.
Passing Time
Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a
sure beginning.
Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free
These romantic poems use symbols and similes to elucidate Maya's romantic ideal. This style makes these poems perfect for using in a love letter, or to recite to a loved one.
They evoke a universal need for caring and closeness, those qualities that are the point and triumph of a romantic relationship.
For more love poems by Maya Angelou, pick up The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. It's great!
