When you travel, you tend to make connections fast, but they are also fleeting. When you’re out of any routines, exploring the world (and yourself) and sharing incredible experiences with like-minded strangers who quickly turn to friends, it can be easy to fall in love, at least for a moment. This is where travel romance comes in. But, for the same reasons it’s easy to fall in love on the road, it’s often hard to make this love last – especially when you come from two different worlds outside of your travel bubble. But that’s okay. I don’t believe that things need to be long term to be worthwhile or that things need to last forever to be successful.
This is a poem about falling in love for just a moment in time, a beautiful moment in time that gave me so much but didn’t need to be more than it was. This love, however fleeting, gave me everything it was meant to give me before making space in my heart for the loves that followed. If you have ever felt something similar (or even if you haven’t) I hope you enjoy this poem.
Love For a Moment
Our love was the kind I knew needed
breadcrumbs to guide me out
when we got in too deep. A cave
wandered into, full of excitement, curious, with a desire
to see more, but the risk
of getting lost just too big. It was forgetting
to leave the breadcrumbs
on purpose.
And our heartbreak was one untethered
from you don’t want me, anchored in the unfairness
of it was never meant to be.
You caught me at an intersection
in our race through life’s maze.
You chasing family, security, someone to come home
to everyday, to dry the dishes you wash, and be half
of the funny voices in the bedtime stories you read your children,
a routine full of together.
Me after oceans, the unknown, freedom to move with the wind,
no plans further than a month away, building a new home
every time I lay my head down somewhere new.
But for a moment, the weight of your desire
held me in the mud,
you on top of me,
me looking up at the waterfall above,
falling, roaring,
fleeting as our love.
Our love was the pink crinkle-free flower clinging
to my hair when we arose,
magical and bound
to fall out.
A million dragonflies flying around our heads,
a magical fantasy novel until
the very last page. Then closed
on the bookshelf to rest.
It was my arms wrapped around you
on the back of your motorbike, winding down
a precarious dirt road already so sure
you’d keep me safe
until I got off
and you stayed on. An island teeming
with life and happiness all day
then at night everyone gone.
Only our love remaining.
The pure joy of children at play,
the way the games you teach them resonate
long after you leave. Countless perfect
places, none enjoyed for very long.
The singing in the hotel room shower,
playlist on shuffle, but we sang
in sync, until the music stopped.
A seemingly choreographed rhythm
of decision making,
where no one had to make the last one.
It was always meant to end with goodbye,
destined to enchant our imaginations,
fill us with hope for future loves
and then leave us grieving.
What do you think about travel romance?
Do you think it’s worthwhile to fall in love with someone you know you can’t be with for long, or is it not worth the heartbreak at the end in your opinion? Have you had a travel romance that stayed with you long after the connection is gone? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear your stories and thoughts!!
If you enjoyed this poem, here are more poems about travel moments
- A Poem About a Once in a Lifetime Travel Moment is a poem about a magical moment in Laos that I didn’t get on camera, and how that affects the memory. There is actually a reference to this moment in Laos in the poem Love For a Moment as well.
- A Heartwarming Travel Poem About Guatemala is a poem about a travel moment in Flores Guatemala that gave me some insight about some of the cultural differences between Guatemala and North America.
- Silence is a poem about, well, silence and what it can represent. Not just silence in the literal sense, but silence as a feeling.
- Ocean Meditation explores all the things you can learn from the ocean and the feelings they bring up.
- Or check out more of my poetry here!
