Poetry & Art

Dear Body (With Love)

by Emily Patterson • March 23, 2019

This is a love letter,
part apology, part promise
to love you better,
to look in the mirror
and see what I like
about you: lashes, legs.
To look in the mirror
and love your creases
and folds, the softness
I call ugly in an ugly voice.

How is it loving to call you
too much and not enough
all at once? How is it loving
to look at you through
anyone else’s eyes
but your own?

This is a love letter,
part apology, part promise
to look in the mirror
a little less, to love you
a little more. Your shining
pieces, and your struggles:
none of these are your name.
None of these make you less
loved.

Like this post? View similar content here: The Importance of Loving Yourself

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by Emily Patterson

Emily Patterson is a writer and editor in Columbus, Ohio. She studied English and Music at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she graduated summa cum laude and received the F.L. Hunt Prize for most promising student in creative writing. Emily is currently pursuing an M.A. in Literature for Children and Young Adults at Ohio State University. Emily's work has been published in Spry Literary Journal, catheXis Northwest Press, Harness Magazine Issue III: Poetry & Motherhood, Eunoia Review, Pinkley Press, and elsewhere. Emily is currently writing her first chapbook of poems and a novel-in-verse for middle readers. She works as an editor for an educational publisher located in Columbus.