They say
New love is the brightest
They say
Long love is the greatest
They also say
Revived love is the tenderest thing known on earth
They forgot to say
That when it crashes down around you
Again
It hurts
So much more.
(Quote adapted from Thomas Hardy – New love is the brightest, and long love is the greatest, but revived love is the tenderest thing known on earth.).
About roughseasinthemed
I write about my life as an English person living in Spain and Gibraltar, on Roughseas, subjects range from politics and current developments in Gib to book reviews, cooking and getting on with life.
My views and thoughts on a variety of topics - depending on my mood of the day - can be found over on Clouds. A few pix are over on Everypic - although it is not a photoblog.
And of course my dog had his own blog, but most of you knew that anyway. Pippadogblog etc
roughseasinthemed
Clouds moving in 
Yes, when it crashes it does not matter if it’s the brightest, best, longest.. it hurts.. I have always thought our first love was the best we will ever know for we have nothing else to compare it with..
Loved this poem 🙂
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Thanks L. I wanted the end (of the poem) to be different. I don’t know how. Maybe I’ll write something else as a follow-up.
I’m not sure about the first. What is the first? Because when you fall out of ~ what you think is love ~ there is nothing to look back to really. And you ask whether it was love or not?
It is so hard when it falls apart though, and that’s what I was trying to capture. Magic one moment, and next – nothing 😦
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What is love though?
Is it the sparkly first love that at the time feels like it’s for ever?
Is it the mellow love of a long lasting relationship that has become a bit lack lustre?
Is it parental/sibling love, that is there though not chosen?
Or the unconditional love from a pet?
All are capable of causing pain and heartache. 🙂
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I don’t know what it is! I doubt I could tell the difference between lust and love either. I think that may be an issue that we all confuse the two, or maybe they are inseparable in terms of adult relationships.
The family one is totally different. I hadn’t even thought of that 😀
Not sure that pets love us. Just like somewhere to eat, to sleep, and stay out of the cold and wet. They are much more pragmatic. And much more loyal.
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You got me thinking… other than familial love, I wonder if most ‘love” isn’t a grand name given to variety of other things… delusion, projection, lust, infatuation… can you only call it love after it’s done the long miles and by process of elimination it’s none of those? Is it heart break or pride break…? Ahh but I’ve never been overly romantic, and the words “they say” echo hollowly for me… “who says?” was my reply to my stepmother’s “they say”…
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I think you are right about the general name that can cover a host of different feelings. I mentioned lust above to Vicky, didn’t think as broadly as you, but I think all those words are often applicable.
Usually speaking, love is described as something between two people that have a sexual relationship (of whatever type), like you I’m excluding the familial one – hopefully – in that. But that would exclude a deep platonic relationship, and I think that can be just as equally described as love.
I never really think about it, but for some reason, this quote came to my notice in my teens and I’ve never forgotten it. Probably because someone had just chucked me 😀 and I was waiting for them to reappear in my life. (They didn’t – went out with a close friend instead). Def pride break there!
Looking back on the brief relationships I had before the current one, I wouldn’t call any of them ‘love’. But is that judging with hindsight and basing it on the current relationship? I suspect so. Had we split up years ago, and I was with someone else, I probably would say it hadn’t been love either. Which picks up your point about the miles.
I don’t do romantic either. Probably why the whole thing puzzles me. I used they say, because I wanted to give it that sense of distance. The literal truth would have been ‘Thomas Hardy says’ but it didn’t have quite the same ring 😀
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Funny how quotes and sayings stick with you… mine was quoted to my Dad so many times… “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself…” and like TH’s to you, it comes back to me still 🙂
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That’s one I’ve not heard. But it’s interesting and one you could interpret a number of ways. Anyway, I’m off to write another post, loosely based on a famous quote.
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“Love, whether newly-born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
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Nice quote, and a different way of looking at the same aspects of love. Thanks. A university friend was always very fond of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work. Not sure I ever got round to reading him though, so must remember to check out the library on my next visit.
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