Some messages are not sent because something happened or because you need to say something important. They are sent just because you want him to smile. Because you thought about him and you wanted him to know it. Because the right paragraph at the right moment can turn an ordinary Tuesday into something he thinks…
Long distance relationships run on communication. When you cannot be there in person, words have to carry more weight. They have to say not just what you feel but how much you mean it, across whatever miles and time zones sit between you. The right paragraph can close a distance that no map can measure….
Ending a relationship is one of the hardest things to put into words. You know what you feel but you do not always know how to say it in a way that is honest, clear, and kind at the same time. Too short and it does not honor what you had. Too long and it…
His birthday is one of those days where you actually have a reason to say all the things you feel on ordinary days but do not always say out loud. Use it. A birthday paragraph that sounds like you, that says something real about him and what he means to you, is worth more than…
Saying sorry is not always easy, especially to someone you actually care about. You know what you want to say but the words come out wrong, or they do not come out at all, or you send something too short and it reads like you do not really mean it. A real apology deserves more…
A letter board at the beach gets photographed every single time. It does not matter if it is on the porch of a beach house, propped up in the sand, or sitting on a towel next to someone’s drink. If it says the right thing, someone will take a picture of it. The right thing…
Losing a father is one of those losses that does not have a clean ending. The grief settles into ordinary moments. You hear a song he would have liked, you want to call him with news, you catch yourself doing something the way he did and feel it all over again. There is no right…
A mother-in-law has a particular vantage point on Father’s Day. She watched her child fall in love, she watched that person become part of her family, and now she gets to watch them be a parent to her grandchildren. That combination of pride, love, and gratitude is its own specific feeling and it deserves its…
Father’s Day belongs to single moms too. The ones who never got a break from being both parents. Who worked, provided, showed up to every game, stayed up for every hard conversation, and loved their children with a completeness that did not leave space for anything to feel missing. They deserve to be celebrated today…
A Father’s Day card with a poem inside is the kind of card that does not get thrown away. It ends up somewhere a person keeps things, pulled out later and read again. That is what a well-written poem does that a signature alone never can. Every poem in this collection is written to actually…