Can you die of a broken heart?

Researchers have looked at what goes on in the brain,
and for lovers and addicts it’s exactly the same.

Those who are newly in love
experience joy in their minds from a dopamine flood.

And it’s this same pattern that goes on in the brain
as that which occurs when you’re hooked on cocaine.

So in the first throes of passion you’re literally addicted to love,
and that's probably why those feelings all hurt so much.



From Can you die of a broken heart? on BBC iWonder. Submitted by Ben Mellor.

A holiday from time

It makes me remember
all the times we’ve been together
absolutely alone in some suspended hour
a holiday from Time
prowling about in those quiet places
alienated from past and future
where there is no sound save listening
and vision is an anesthetic…

When I see how handsome you are
my stomach will fall
with many unpleasant emotions
like a cake with too many raisins
and I will want to shut you up in a closet
like a dress too beautiful to wear.



A letter from Zelda Fitzgerald to her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1931. Submitted by Grace Andreacchi.

When love goes cold

She was going out with him,
she was supposed to love him,
but she left him in the fridge
and let the council deal with the body.



Overheard in the street in a small city in southern England, 7 October 2015. Submitted by Mark Totterdell.

Missed Connections

I get frustrated with things in my personal life sometimes,
especially her.
I’m missing consideration, and a loved feeling.
My life is being spent in a back seat to others
whom I always take care of with little reciprocation
and even less thanks.
I spend time fantasizing about the feeling of woman,
giving a damn,
and of the random,
uninitiated touch or smile.
Why must I work so, so hard
just to get so, so little?
All I want is someone's time and consideration
without the feeling that I owe them for it.




From Craigslist Miami, Missed Connections MfW, March 2014. Submitted by Dawn S. Davies.

Fall in love, or be asphyxiated

At certain points, reading
the work can even be said
to resemble the act of
making love to a
three-hundred-pound woman.
Once she gets on top,
it’s all over.

Fall in love, or
be asphyxiated.



Taken from Norman Mailer's 1998 New York Review of Books review of Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, posted on Futility Closet. Submitted by Marika.

Fundamentally Curious

It’s an act so
immense, so apparently monstrous and yet
deeply personal that it’s
almost
impossible to judge.
He erased himself, and all
those 8,000 souls, for

one woman.

Because he loved her.

There’s something
terrifying
in that kind of love, something that asks
for so much
it can’t possibly be returned,

or ignored.



Taken from an AV Club review of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Children of Time". "Possible" has been corrected to "possibly" in line 14. Submitted by Wesley Brown.

Valentine

You haven’t forgotten
Anastasia
Marina
Natasha
have you?
i hope you stay well.

will you be my valentine?
there are no
obligations.
no fee to pay

this chance comes just once
in a lifetime
again
this chance comes
just once
in a lifetime

Svetlana is waiting.



A compilation of various subject lines from my Spam box. Submitted by Mr. Wilson.

Doubles

I miss you. I hark back to the friendship
we used to have, impromptu adventures,
knowing the everyday details of each
other's lives, nights in watching trashy TV.

I've been there at 3am when you've clutched
my hand and explained he's dependable
and he'll make a great father. I want to
tell you that it's the 21st century

but you don't listen to me any more.
I am impeccably polite. I put on
a rictus grin when you spend an hour
discussing your wedding plans. I am

becoming a souvenir of your past life,
to be gradually discarded for
women you can play doubles tennis with.
I'm happy for you. But I wish you'd call.



From What I'm really thinking: the single friend, The Guardian, 26 January 2013. A few words omitted: 'that' (line 6), 'I know, 'really' (9), 'something' (14); and sub clauses removed in lines 8 and 12. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

Counting on Him

He's thirty-three, for Chrissake,
thirty three. Thirty fucking three.
Three, three. This year
he turns thirty-four.
And he's still expecting me
to sort his life out. What have I done
to get to deal with all his shit?
Some times he forgets
I'm still twenty-one.



Overheard outside the Southbank Centre, London, at about 3pm on February 2nd 2013. Submitted by Judi Sutherland.

Wanting

I mean I actually have to
physically
send him a link
to the thing I want.

I mean I would almost
rather him not buy anything for me...
because he just goes
and buys me something

really SHIT. And he's started being
really funny about it, like now
he buys me something
and says I probably won't like it

even before I unwrap it. And I
just said to him that it's better for me
to SAY I don't like it and take it back,
than to pretend. And

I must have mentioned like
twice a day that I want
some stacking rings. But he
sees that as like an engagement ring,

like I'd MARRY him
for Christ's sake. I mean if I want
to find out what HE wants
I would ask his friends.

Why doesn't he do that? Oh, and then
he goes online to Sophie
to ask what I want
and she tells him that I want

some black jeans and this poster
I linked to on Facebook, and he
just didn't pay ANY ATTENTION to her...
Yes but I shouldn't have to say

what I want.



A phone conversation overheard on the train from London to Pewsey, 4.36pm on Wednesday 19th December. Submitted by Jo Bell.

Whether you could bear the idea of marrying me

I can’t advise you in my favour because I
think it would be beastly for you, but think how nice
it would be for me. I am restless & moody
and misanthropic & lazy & have no money
except what I earn and if I got ill you would
starve. In fact it’s a lousy proposition. On

the other hand I think I could do a Grant and
reform & become quite strict about not getting
drunk and I am pretty sure I should be faithful.
Also there is always a fair chance that there will
be another bigger economic crash in
which case if you had married a nobleman with

a great house you might find yourself starving, while I
am very clever and could probably earn a
living of some sort somewhere. All these are very
small advantages compared with the awfulness
of my character. I have always tried to be
nice to you and you may have got it into your

head that I am nice really, but that is all rot.
It is only to you & for you. I am jealous
& impatient — but there is no point in going
into a whole list of my vices. You are a
critical girl and I’ve no doubt that you know them
all and a great many I don’t know myself.



From a letter written by Evelyn Waugh in 1936, after his first wife had left him, asking her cousin whether “you could bear the idea of marrying me”, found at Futility Closet. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Russian Girls in Love

Hello, gentleman!
I will be honest with you
I tell that I can't see a future
that does not include you.

I feel great inspiration every time
when I see you I feel scared
that your heart isn't single
that you won't want to build
romantic relations with me.

But from other hand,
I try to forget about all fears
to believe that you are the man of my dream
that I am a woman beyond your dreams.

It was not the easy step for me
to write to you this letter.
I didn't used to get acquainted with strangers
especially through the internet.

But I am very disappointed into real life
where I can't meet a good man and
I can't build love and family.
I decided to change
something in my life
and this first change is
my letter to you.

you won't stay cold
you will be touched with
my sincere and romantic letter.
I am always ready to write
to you a reply to continue
our romantic acquaintance.



Taken from a spam email. Submitted by Karen Greenbaum-Maya.

Hi Emily,

This is just to let u know
I love u no less than I did at school.
Maybe it’s time we both moved on,
I will always love u
no matter how this ends.



From a text message that was sent, accidentally, to my friend Anita, 1 May 2012. Submitted by Lynda.

Saying true things

I’m in love with you
and I’m not in the business
of denying myself
the simple pleasure of
saying
true
things
I’m in love with you
and I know that
love is just a shout
into the void
and that
oblivion is inevitable
and that
we’re all doomed
and that
there will come a day when
all our labor has been
returned
to
dust
and I know the sun
will swallow the only earth
we’ll ever have
and
I’m in love with you.



From The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton Books, 2012). Submitted by Megan.

Breaking up

What am I supposed
to do now? I've got your face
tattooed on my arm.



From a most incredible exchange on Facebook, in which a young man finds out that his girlfriend of one week has had his face inked permanently on her body. Sadly, for us, a hoax. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.

Simon and Ruth

At first, Ruth was a bit put off
by the fact that Simon turned up in a car
with every imaginable gadget:
I wasn't used to flash cars, she says.

Then, on a day out to the beach,
Simon messed up Ruth's kite.
He got all the lines tangled
so I didn't use it again, says Ruth,

who had, however, noticed
that Simon was very polite.



Taken from the Announcements, Marriages and Engagements section of The Times on 18 February 2012 (Simon and Ruth are to be married on 22 June 2012). Submitted by Thom.

I love you and I

I love you and I
will be screaming with my love
from San Jose.



Taken from an MSN conversation, 4th November 2011. Submitted by Devin.

Ullapool

Here
I am on the seafront in Brighton, in 1994.
I have just told my best friend that
we shouldn't go out with each other.
'We were meant to be just friends,'
I am saying.
I have read about love in novels and am sure
I know all about it. This is one of the cleverest things
I have ever done.
I am 18.
I exhale my cigarette, like a grown-up. Here
I am four years later, on the same stretch of seafront
with the same friend.
We are on a bench. My head is in his lap.
We are talking about what to call
our baby in my belly. My wedding dress is in a bag at
our feet.
We get married in three days. Since
we were last here,
I have learnt that
I knew nothing at the age of 18.
I know now that love can be a quiet, sure thing
– like the first April sun on
your arms – and not the pyroclastic blast
I was waiting for. In 19 hours,
we will find out that the baby
is dead. The grief that is coming for
us has five blades on each hand: it will fall on
us like a blizzard, and leave
us on the floor.
We will weep on
our honeymoon in Ullapool – so lost
I could not tell you if it did rain at all,
that time. At the time,
I thought the deep-sea pressure of sorrow was
so great, it would crush
my heart smaller, for ever.
I was sure I knew everything about it.



Taken from Caitlin Moran's column for the Saturday Times on 20th August, 2011. Submitted by Marika Rose.

When I'm Seventy-Five

It's very difficult to fall in love
when you are seventy-five
because, at that age,
people are not delicious.



A quote from a colleague's English Language student. Submitted by Miriam.

I'll never forget the moment we kissed

I'll never forget the moment we kissed,
the night of the hayride –
that flash-in-the-pan magic moment
that makes your hair stand on end.
Could be the surge forward
as the house lights fade,
a glance from the lead singer
or a badly timed scissor kick from a trombone player.



Part of an email update from Koko, 10 June 2011. 'It is all about' removed from line 3. Submitted by Laura.