It moves us verbally and emotionally and has the power to lay bare the complexities of life’s ups and downs from different vantage points.
Letting go of the past is a challenging charge, but poetry about moving on in lifeis a balm to help you navigate rough waters.
As such, today, we’re celebrating 15 moving poems about letting go and walking forward with confidence.
15 Deeply Moving Poems About Letting Go
Reading poems about letting go can give you the motivation and inspiration needed to move on in a healthy direction. We hope the 15 selections below do exactly that for you.
1. Letting Go by Nelson Mandela
To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring: it means I can’t do it for someone else. To let go is not to cut myself off; it is the realization that I can’t control another. To let go is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences. To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands. To let go is not to try to change or blame another; I can only change myself. To let go is not to care for, but to care about. To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive. To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being. To let go is not to be in the middle arranging outcomes, but to allow others to effect their own outcomes. To let go is not to be protective; it is to permit another to face reality. To let go is not to deny, but to accept. To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue, but to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment. To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone, but to try to become what I dream I can be To let go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future. To let go is to fear less and love more.
2. She Let Go by Reverend Safire Rose
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go. She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go… She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right. She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go. She didn’t analyse whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go. No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.
3. The Peace of Wild Things by Wendall Berry
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
4. Letting Go Is A Sure Cure by Catherine Pulsifer
What is the point of hanging on to a grudge Who are you to point the finger and be the judge Letting go will help you more It is, for sure, a great cure. What is the point of being mad In the end, it is just you who is sad. Moving on will help you more It is, for sure, a great cure. What is the point of trying to force love It is like putting on a mismatched glove. Set yourself free will help you more It is, for sure, a great cure. What is the point of not forgiving It is like missing out on living. To forgive will help you more It is, for sure, a great cure. For all of the things that upset you so The best cure is letting go. Move on, don’t get stuck Holding on and in a rut.
5. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
6. We Never Let Go by Jocelyn Soriano
We do not really let go of love; We hold on to it. We hold on to what remains After all the dross is put away. And after all the pain has Purified the heart, We know that we need only part With things that cannot last. But we hold on to what is pure; We cherish the truth we’ve found. And what is beautiful shall always remain Because we never really let go of love.
7. After great pain, a formal feeling comes by Emily Dickinson
After great pain, a formal feeling comes – The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs – The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’ And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’? The Feet, mechanical, go round – A Wooden way Of Ground, or Air, or Ought – Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone – This is the Hour of Lead – Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –
8. Pain Ends by Katy A. Brown
Breathe in the fresh air, Put your mind at ease. Let down your hair, Let it flow in the breeze. Let your eyes wander To all the beauty to be seen. If those toxic thoughts you still do ponder, Then let out a scream. Scream until the pain is gone, Until you no longer feel afraid. Open your eyes to a new dawn, Let the darkness fade. No longer compare yourself Or your flaws to others’ perfections. Take the negativity off the shelf. Focus on your direction. Pick the sadness up off the floor, Sweep it into the wind. Close the door on self-hatred. Never let it back in. For the lies it would often tell you, You will no longer agree. Happiness and love are what you should hold onto. They are whom you should give the key. Pay no attention to the toxic thoughts, Listen to those who adore everything you are. Overthinking was what you once were taught, But now those thoughts you put in a jar. Focus on your goals, Never lose your fight. It’s time to open new scrolls. Everything will be all right.
Letting go will teach you the art of being humble, yet strong. The less you control, the more you grow.
10. Let Go of Your Worries by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Let go of your worries and be completely clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images. If you want a clear mirror, behold yourself and see the shameless truth, which the mirror reflects. If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require? Between the mirror and the heart is this single difference: the heart conceals secrets, while the mirror does not.
11. In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver
Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds, and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now. Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know. To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
12. Ghosts by Alexandra Vasiliu
When you remember painful things from your past and when you feel empty, lonely, or heartbroken, don’t run. Look into the eyes of those memories and declare, “Don’t visit me anymore. I don’t belong to you. I belong to love.”
13. Vertigo: Of Love and Letting Go by Analog De Leon
I reach in and unearth the false agreements that have walled up my secret places for so long, then I step back from the ledge. Change begins with one step.
14. The Art of Letting Go by Rania Naim
As you keep learning the art of letting go let go of your fears, of your past of your mistakes, of your insecurities, of your failures, of your self-doubt, forgive yourself enough to let go of even the parts of you that dim your light.
15. Letting Him Go by Lang Leav
There is a particular kind of suffering to be experienced when you love something greater than yourself. A tender sacrifice. Like the pained silence felt in the lost song of a mermaid; or the bent and broken feet of a dancing ballerina. It is in every considered step I am taking in the opposite direction of you.
How to Use These Letting Go Poems
Spending a half-hour reading and contemplating poems is physically relaxing and intellectually stimulating. We highly recommend it.
But it’s not the only way to interact with poems. Other options include:
Using them as writing guides. Copying poems and works of writing is an old-fashioned way of learning to become a better scribbler. The practice also helps you connect better with the words.
Using them as inspiration. Don’t copy word for word, but use the structure to create your own poems. It’s an excellent way to get your creative juices flowing.
Holding a poetry reading. Why not get a bunch of people together for a poetry reading? Invite everyone to bring a poem that resonates with them to read at the event. Add some wine, cheese, and other snacks, and you’ve got a fun, artsy, interesting night on your hands.
Reading poems is an excellent way to unwind and contemplate life’s nuances. They also have the power to lift our moods and put things in perspective.
We hope you found a letting go poem in the list that works for you and wish you the best of luck letting go. Great things are ahead.
