3 Poems That Didn't Make the Cut for My Poignant Poetry Book
Last year, my decision to publish a pocket-sized, poignant poetry book was a last-minute one. Spur of the moment, really. There were a lot of changes going on in my life and it just felt like the right time. Plus, my kids were suddenly in preschool a few days a week and I had time to myself. As a mom, a rarity. I was caught up in a maelstrom of changes, too. Some that I wanted, some that I absolutely did not. It was a weird time. And what do writers do when things get weird? We write! The blank page is a therapist I can talk to all day long without an egregious bill impending.
Cutting poems from a poetry book is a kind of mercy. Each removal is an act of honesty: a line that once mattered but now distracts, an image that crowds the room, a voice that doesn’t quite belong in the chorus. You don’t discard the poem’s lifetime—you move it back to drafts while making space for the book to breathe.
Editing this way is surgical—shout out to The Pitt fans!—and tender. You test each piece against the collection’s pulse: tone, rhythm, narrative arc. Some poems leave with a clean, inevitable click, while others require argument, grief, even a ritual of rereading before you let them go. The cuts reshape meaning. They refine movement from page to page, sharpen contrasts, and allow motifs to appear without shouting. There is loss, yes, but also clarity.
The final collection owes its cohesion to the poems you keep and to the confidence to excise the ones that ask the book to be more than it intends. Cutting is not failure—it’s the hard-won generosity of choosing what the book needs most.
Some of the poems in Too Busy 4 Heartbreak had been sitting in my Notes app for years. However, a “fistful of diamonds, handful of rings” amount of them were written in about a month or so. Believe me when I tell you I was going through it. In the end, I decided on publishing 49 poems. Why? Because I have a thing with the number thirteen and 4 + 9 = 13. Sure, I could’ve gone with 94 but that seemed like a stretch. Maybe one day I’ll publish a Still Too Busy 4 Heartbreak edition and include more. Or maybe the poems that were cut will, in the future, belong to a separate collection.
Read More: Short Inspirational Stories for Adults in Thirteen Emotions
However, even with all of the emotions seemingly pouring out of my fingers and onto my keyboard, I couldn’t make room for all of them in this book. It was a waterfall. As difficult as it was, I had to whittle it down. So, without further ado, here are three poems that didn’t end up making the cut.
3 Poems That Didn't Make the Cut for My Poignant Poetry Book, Too Busy 4 Heartbreak
Me & U
A dozen oysters at Balthazar
Driving ‘round in your red car
Never minding where we are
Flipping through Harper’s Bazaar or
Sipping cocktails at the bar
Read More: Poems About Los Angeles in Too Busy 4 Heartbreak
Kiss Me Lies
My thoughts
My lips
My tears
My tits
Your hands
On mine
We’re intertwined
Your smile
Your eyes
Your soul
Your size . . .
Kiss me lies
And we’ll be fine
Talk 2 Me
I could talk to you forever, and would, if I knew you could too (talk to me)
Read More: Avaline Wine My Book Characters Would Drink IRL
If you liked the vibe of these poems and want more, pick up a copy of Too Busy 4 Heartbreak on Amazon or wherever books are sold online across the globe. I also made an accompanying playlist that matches the vibe of the book, which you can find here on Apple Music.
—ᴍᴍᴍ