Part 01: Los Angeles Poems in Too Busy 4 Heartbreak
Living in California wasn’t something I’d planned on in my life. I’d always been a New York kinda girl. Even the cold, snowy winters couldn’t deter me. After all, I do have an affinity for vintage furs and statement outerwear. However, after moving to LA in 2023, I quickly fell head-over-heels in love. And I wrote a handful of Los Angeles poems to prove it.
After nearly three years in LA, how could I not be affected by it? Its energy, vibe, beauty. And as a creative writer, I have to write about things. Otherwise I think my brain would explode. Seriously. It’s a need. I need to get things out of my head and onto paper—or digital paper, at least. Although I do still love a handwritten poem, note, journal. It’s retro and it’s chic.
Poems about Los Angeles catch the city’s constant motion—the hum of freeways, the palm-silhouetted evenings, the glittering promise and the everyday grit. They turn skyline and smog into heat and longing; into language that’s at once glamorous and quietly bruised. They fold in the clash of cultures, the small triumphs of neighbourhood diners and late-night Uber rides, the way sunlight hits glass towers and strip malls alike, and they listen for stories in traffic-lagged roads, in the hush of beaches at dawn, in the echoing corridors of art schools and soundstages.
Poems map an LA of contradictions: aspirational and exhausted, open-hearted and guarded, where myth and failure live side by side, all rendered with the sharp eye of someone who knows both the city’s bright publicity shots and its overlooked corners.
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To be honest, I can’t wait to get back there. For visits, but also hopefully to live again. I’m currently attempting to get used to life in the Bay Area, which I’ve discovered is not my vibe at all. However, that’s one of the more poignant parts of life: making sacrifices for your family that you’d never have made as a single woman thriving in the big city. Me? Living a suburban life? Apparently so.
Here is one of my favourite LA poems from my book Too Busy 4 Heartbreak.
Los Angeles Poems in My Book Too Busy 4 Heartbreak
Feels Like You
Stars and palm trees on a warm West Hollywood night. Movie studios and psychics with neon signs. Driving your convertible through Laurel Canyon. The backs of my thighs sticking to the smooth leather seats. Wind whipping wildly across my bare collarbones. Necklaces shivering. Your side smile. The window to your soul as clear as the California sky. Strolling hand-in-hand. A kiss in a café so busy we get lost in the chatter. Bubbles on my tongue. Adolescent curiosity. Dinner at Chateau Marmont. Your breath, pickled with possibilities, prickling my neck. Making love to the moonlight atop your cloud-like couch. Home.
What does this poem mean to you? What do you feel when you read it? What kind of imagery can you imagine? To me, this piece of poetry is a love letter. To someone, but also to the city. After all, it’s safer to give your heart to a city than to a man. Unless there’s a rent increase.
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Two other poems about Los Angeles in Too Busy 4 Heartbreak are Driving ‘Round and The Myth of Manifestation. Pick up a copy of the book online, worldwide on Amazon.
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