Love in 7 Stages

A Collection of Poems

Stage 1: Passion
First Fire (Acrostic)

Pulses quicken at the sight of you,
All the world feels brand-new.
Soft words shimmer like summer skies,
Shadowed fears vanish in your eyes.
In this beginning, nothing feels wrong,
Our lives rewrite into one song.
Never-ending fire, a sweet disguise.

Stage 2: Discovery / Realization
Learning You (Anaphora)

I learn the way you laugh.
I learn the way you sigh.
I learn the small impatience in your eyes.
I learn the softness when you try.

I learn that you are more than light.
I learn the shadows, sharp and true.
I learn that love is not just bright—
I learn the hidden edges too.

Stage 3: Commitment
Anchored Together (Ghazal)

Commitment is a promise, a vow that will stay,
Through storms and through silence, love finds its way.

The world may unravel, the night may be long,
But anchored together, we both choose to stay.

Your hand in my hand, no contract required,
A quiet devotion in night or in day.

The stars may forget us, the years may grow thin,
But love is the ink that will not fade away.

Stage 4: Power Struggles
War in the Walls (Haiku Sequence)

Raised voices collide,
walls tremble with every word,
doors slam like verdicts.

Eyes that once were kind
now sharpen into daggers,
love feels like a war.

Cold silence follows,
not peace but a battlefield,
two hearts turned to stone.

Stage 5: Growth
From Ashes, To Roots (Extended Limerick)

A couple who spat through the night,
Each word was a weapon to fight.
They circled in rage,
A war on the stage,
Two shadows that swallowed the light.

They screamed until nothing was left,
Both hearts growing weary, bereft.
But silence, at last,
Dissolved all the past,
And softened the edges of theft.

From ashes, they planted a seed,
A truce born of sorrow and need.
Through tending the pain,
They flourished again,
And love learned the strength to succeed.

Stage 6: Romantic Love
The Art of How Love Lives (Pantoum)

Love matures like wine in time,
Patience softens every fear.
We find new rhythms, subtle rhyme,
A trust that only years make clear.

Patience softens every fear,
Each quarrel fades, each scar forgives.
A trust that only years make clear,
We learn the art of how love lives.

Each quarrel fades, each scar forgives,
The bond enriches, strong and true.
We learn the art of how love lives,
Renewing vows with skies of blue.

Stage 7: Bliss
At Last, Serenity (Sonnet)

When all the fleeting passions fade to dust,
And storms once fierce dissolve into the air,
What lingers strong is patience, love, and trust,
A bond matured, beyond the brief affair.

No longer blind, we see with open eyes,
The flaws, the grace, the shadows, and the light.
And still we choose, though time and change arise,
To keep each other warm against the night.

So bliss becomes a quiet, steady flame,
Not wild, but deep, enduring in its glow.
A love not needing praise or fleeting fame,
But one that only time and truth can show.

Thus in your arms, I learn what love can be—
The final stage: at last, serenity.

Return
Love Returns (Haiku Sequence)

First spark, then embers,
love loops back into itself,
a cycle renewed.

Seasons may wither,
yet spring waits beneath the frost—
our fire wakes again.

Closing Reflection
An Endless Sweep (Terza Rima)

Love begins in fire, untamed, alive,
Then learns itself through sorrow, storm, and test.
Through struggle’s edge, two hearts will still survive.

Stability will come; the soul finds rest.
Romance matures, a harvest rich and deep,
In final bliss, love settles as its best.

Yet passion stirs again—an endless sweep.