“Without a hurt, the heart is hollow”
At 17 my heart o’erflowed–
My boyfriend left (I did not follow)
Lost, alone — I carried the load
A load of grief — weak teenage heart!
But without hope, the heart is heavy
What feels so insurmountable then
Is but a tax that life must levy
Levy, impose, charge, collect
The one-two punch when child leaves home
Without a home, the heart is haggard
We need belonging to find shalom
Ah, Shalom, you’re so elusive
Particularly when life is knotty
It is so humbling to sit in failure
Without humility, the heart is haughty
Still and still and still again
Hurt and hope, home, humility
When life brings sorrow to our heart
We can find strength in our fragility
I’m going through boxes of stuff trying to clean house and came across a syrupy, nauseating, teen-angsty poem that I had written when my high school boyfriend broke up with me. In the poem, I quoted a song from The Fantasticks, a play I love: “Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.” I ended the poem, quite melodramatically, with “my heart is not hollow, but full.”
Do you remember how, as a teenager, a break-up felt like you were picking your way through a wasted post-Armaggedon landscape, with absolutely nothing left for you?
And yet, somehow, we survive.
It makes me laugh now.
The W3 Challenge for the Weeks asks a lot. Poet of the Week Bob Lynn gave us these requirements:
a. Required Poetic Device: Repetition/Anaphora
Your poem must include deliberate repetition of a word, phrase, or sentence structure at least three times throughout the piece. This could be:
- The same word beginning multiple lines or stanzas
- A repeated phrase that acts as a refrain
- Parallel sentence structures that create rhythm and emphasis
Example from the inspiration piece: “keep cookin’”, “keep settin’”, “keep talkin’”
b. Required Word: “Still”
Your poem must incorporate the word “still” at least twice. This word can function as:
- An adverb indicating continuation (“I still remember…”)
- An adjective describing quietness (“the still morning”)
- A verb meaning to calm or quiet (“to still the waters”)
This word connects to the poem’s themes of persistence, memory, and the tension between movement and stillness in grief.
Additional Notes
- Your poem should explore how physical spaces hold emotional significance
- Consider writing in an authentic voice that feels personal and conversational
- There are no restrictions on length, form, or rhyme scheme
- Focus on creating vivid, sensory details that ground your emotions in concrete imagery
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
A moving poem
This reads like a time capsule for the heart.
Hi Sally – what beautiful wisdom you’ve woven here! Your paradoxical structure brilliantly mirrors the poem’s central truth – that our deepest pains often become our greatest strengths. The way you trace the journey from teenage heartbreak to philosophical understanding feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. Your use of “shalom” and the careful alliterative patterns show real craft, while your honest vulnerability makes this piece genuinely moving. Thank you for sharing such thoughtful, heartfelt work.
Oh, the memories this dredges up, the times we thought we’d die!
Sally, your line “Still and still and still again” echoes with a kind of quiet persistence that really hits home for me. I still remember my first real heartbreak during freshman year of college, and your poem brings me right back to that raw, disorienting space.
~David
Our hopes and dreams are so innocent when we are young…it’s refreshing, in a way, to return to the time before cynicism made us guard our hearts too tightly. (K)
Well done Sally! I had 3 boyfriends – the first was a year older and we never really broke up – he graduated and went to college… the second was a year younger and we dated my senior year (his junior) and then until my sophomore year of college. That was a breakup of sorts but we remained very good friends. The third one was my age and I was dating him at the same time a BF #2 . He had a bad temper and then one day he disappeared. His best friend talked him into enlisting in the army and they were *poof* gone. His mother called me to see if he was at my house – he didn’t say good-bye to friends or family. So I never had the heartbreak in HS – I saved that for college and I was past the self pity. I had some tears – mostly of suppressed rage…
Yes, those teenage heartbreaks! I’m glad when we can look back and chuckle at the memories, though we really feel the angst in all its depth at the time.
hi, Sally 😍
Just wanna let you know that this week’s W3, hosted by our beloved Kim Whysall-Hammond for the very first time, is now live:
https://skepticskaddish.com/2025/06/11/w3-prompt-163-weave-written-weekly/
Enjoy❣️
Much love,
David
Very recognisable thoughts conjured here.
I try to tell my students to have their hearts broken three times before they finish high school so that they’ve had plenty of practice before things start to get serious.