emotional intimacy

This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart ~ A Poem by James Joyce

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Between Kiss and Kiss: The Fragile Riches of a Heart in Love


Love that flutters close to your heart is rarely loud—it speaks in hushes, treasures memories, and asks only to be held, even if briefly.

This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart

James Joyce

This heart that flutters near my heart
My hope and all my riches is,
Unhappy when we draw apart
And happy between kiss and kiss:
My hope and all my riches — – yes! — –
And all my happiness.

For there, as in some mossy nest
The wrens will divers treasures keep,
I laid those treasures I possessed
Ere that mine eyes had learned to weep.
Shall we not be as wise as they
Though love live but a day?

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Poignant Reflection:

James Joyce captures something deeply human in this short, aching poem—the nearness of love and the quiet dread of its distance. The heart he speaks of flutters, not pounds. It is delicate, not loud. It’s a love that lives in the space between kisses, between partings and reunions. And yet, it holds all his riches, all his happiness.

In a single breath, Joyce shifts from sweetness to sorrow. He compares love to a wren’s nest—humble, hidden, and full of treasures. He reminds us that even before we learned to cry, we were storing precious things in others. In this way, love becomes a kind of sacred gamble. We give away the best of us to something that might vanish.

But is that not wisdom, too? Even if love lasts only a day, is it not worth having loved at all?

🤔 Three Questions to Dive Deeper:

  1. What does your heart treasure most between “kiss and kiss”—and do you protect it or offer it freely?
  2. Have you ever let love flutter near your heart, knowing it might only stay a little while?
  3. Are you willing to treasure what was, even if it didn’t last?

Words in the Shadow ~ A Poem by Victor Hugo

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When Love Waits in the Quiet Corner


Love doesn’t always shout—it often sits silently, hoping to be seen, aching to be dreamed of too. Victor Hugo gives voice to that silence.

Words in the Shadow

Victor Hugo

She said, “I am wrong to want something more, it’s true.
The hours go by very quietly just so.
You are there. I never takes my eyes off you.
In your eyes I see your thoughts as they come and go.

To watch you is a joy I have not yet got through.
No doubt it is still very charming of its kind!
I watch, for I know everything that annoys you.
So that nothing comes knocking when you’re not inclined.

I make myself so small in my corner near you.
You are my great lion, I am your little dove.
I listen to your leaves, the peacful froufrou.
Sometimes I pick up your pen when it falls off.

Without a doubt I have you. Surely I see you.
Thinking is a wine on which the dreamers are drunk.
I know. But sometimes I’d like to be dreamed of too.
When you are like that, in your books, all evening, sunk.

No lifting your head or saying a word to me,
There is a shadow deep down in my loving heart.
For me to see you whole, it is necessary
To look at me a little, sometimes, on your part.”

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