Love words

Some days the words come on their own, and some days you stare at your screen wondering how to say it without sounding fake. You know exactly what you feel, it's the sentence that won't come. This page is for those days.

There's the long letter, the one you keep putting off because a blank page feels enormous when it's meant for someone you love. Learning how to write a love letter begins with a single memory rather than a grand declaration, and once the first line is down, the rest tends to follow. Then there are the everyday words, sent from a bus seat or a kitchen counter: forty-two love messages for him, sorted by moment, from the good-morning note to the hard day when he just needs to know you're there.

When your own words run out, you can borrow some. Japanese poets said love in three lines long before anyone sent a text, and these thirty-six love haiku still hold the waiting, the presence and the small things of a life together. And once you've found your sentence, you can write the love letter online: sealed with wax, it unfolds line by line on their screen, and it stays.

Typed, deleted, sent

Can't Wait to See You: 30 Messages That Ask for Nothing

August 12, 20265 min
Two chocolate croissants, alone

Thinking of You Messages: 40 Texts That Say Why Right Now

August 11, 20266 min
You almost said it

How to Confess Your Feelings: 14 Messages by Situation

August 9, 20266 min
A word that's only hers

Love Messages for Her: 45 Texts She Hasn't Already Read

August 9, 20269 min
The one he keeps

Love Messages for Him: 42 Texts He Reads More Than Once

August 9, 20268 min
I have 354 words left

365 Love Notes to Print, One a Day for a Whole Year

August 7, 202615 min
10:41 p.m., I miss you

I Miss You Messages: 40 Ways to Say It Differently

August 7, 20267 min
The reed's lament

Persian Love Quotes on Absence: Rumi, Hafez, Saadi

June 13, 20267 min
Right on the right night

Love Texts That Make You Cry: 15 for the Right Moment

June 12, 20265 min
The words you're after

Love Letter for Him or Her: 7 Templates to Make Yours

June 11, 20266 min
The message you keep deleting

Apology Text After a Fight: 22 Messages to Say Sorry

June 10, 20267 min
Thirteen words for the wait

Iktsuarpok and 12 other words for the ache of waiting

June 9, 20265 min
The last word of the night

30 Goodnight Love Messages for Him to Fall Asleep To

June 8, 20266 min
One Quote a Day

30 Love Quotes to Give, One a Day

June 7, 20264 min
Drop it in his phone

Short Love Messages: 50 Sweet Texts to Send Today

June 6, 20264 min
Before he wakes

30 Good Morning Love Messages for Him to Wake Up To

June 5, 20265 min
From Wolof to Zulu

40 African Love Proverbs, From Wolof to Zulu

May 31, 20267 min
The word you were missing

20 untranslatable love words from around the world

May 28, 20265 min
Words That Sound Like You

40 Cute Texts to Send Your Girlfriend (That Sound Like You)

May 26, 20266 min
What falling confesses

Why we say fall in love: five verbs, five confessions

May 24, 20266 min
Little ways to say it

Say I Love You Differently: 30 Texts to Copy and Send

May 23, 20265 min
Going out to see if they're coming

Iktsuarpok: the Inuit word for those who wait

May 22, 20266 min
21 Poems to Give

21 Love Poems That Mark the Heart

May 21, 202618 min
Better than nothing

Sweet Things to Say to Your Girlfriend Every Day: 4 Triggers

May 21, 20266 min
Her hand in your hair

Cafuné: the Brazilian word your language can't say

May 18, 20268 min
The Missing Star

The Etymology of Love Words: What They Still Carry

May 18, 20268 min
Twenty-two ways of looking

22 untranslatable Japanese words for what you already feel

May 16, 20267 min
Seven centuries of lovers

30 Famous Love Letters, from Heloise to Piaf

May 14, 202610 min
While It's Still Passing

Mono no Aware: The Beauty of What Passes

May 13, 20267 min
What We Keep

What We Keep Private: On Modesty, Pudor, and Density

May 13, 20267 min
The presence of absence

Saudade: the Portuguese word no language can translate

May 12, 20267 min
The Outstretched Hand

Tenderness, or the Outstretched Hand: A Manifesto

May 11, 20267 min
Love in Kanji

40 Japanese Love Quotes, From Heian Poets to Murakami

May 10, 20269 min
Seventeen syllables for you

36 love haiku: three lines to say it all

May 10, 20265 min
The Joy That Bites Back

Be Happy, If Only Out of Spite: A Manifesto

May 9, 20266 min
Candor, the Innocence of the Strong

Candor, the Innocence of the Strong

May 9, 20265 min
The letter that waits

How to Write a Love Letter (Without Dying of Embarrassment)

April 2, 20267 min
73 reasons about you

73 Reasons I Love You

March 27, 202612 min

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