I Hope You Remember Quotes

“Wounds have no choice but to heal eventually And you will find something else to cry about But it won’t be them”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“*I’m going to miss you forever —*
*do you know that?*

I will spend the rest of my life
missing you
in big ways
and small ways
and medium ways—
in all ways.

I’m going to miss you.

There aren’t many things
that last forever,
but missing people —
it never, ever ends.

Even people
you shouldn’t miss,
or don’t want to miss,
or who don’t deserve
to be missed.

That feeling will creep in
like a robber on his tiptoes.
He’s in there
and there’s nothing you can do.

And it’s beautiful,
because I know
I’ll never forget
to keep missing you,
even when the spaces
between remembering
and forgetting
get longer.

But it’s awful, too,
because you only have to miss someone
when they’re gone.

Sometimes I’ll miss you
and I’ll know
that’s what I’m doing.

And sometimes
it’ll just be an emptiness,
or an ache
that creeps in.

And I’ll take a moment
to ponder what hurts
and where it’s coming from,
and my body will clue into
the difference between
the pain of a cut on my hand
and the grief
of you being gone.

And then I’ll remember.

And I’ll miss you then, too.

For all my days.
Not every day—
but in little pieces
until the end of time.

I am going to miss you forever,
and I find so much peace
and so much pain
in that
all at once.”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“What did being loved by me feel like? What was it like for you during the time that I thought you hung the moon? What was it like to sit across from someone who thought you could do no wrong Even while you did the wrong things?”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I hope I made you feel good about yourself And I hope you feel warm when I cross your mind Because it makes you think of a time when Somebody loved every single thing about you Because I did”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“You see, I know what love feels like now Because of you You set the bar You made me understand what I need And what I deserve Sometimes I hate you for that a little bit Because now I spend so much time craving that kind of connection While you’re far away And I know I have found it in others I’ve found it in yesterdays and I will find it in tomorrows But first place is first place Gold is not silver You are gold, and there is only room for one”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“The version of you that wore smaller pants The version of you that wore ten sizes bigger than you do now All those versions are good The you in the photos way back in your camera roll that make your heart sink Because you feel you’ve let yourself go—that version and this version? Both good The version of you that you’d never want to mentally feel like But still wish you physically looked like”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Choosing adult friends is saying I love who you are And I’m grateful for all the friends And experiences and lessons that life handed you before Because they shaped you in a way That fits so beautifully with the way mine shaped me”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“But most times you don’t know you’re driving on ice until you’re in the ditch”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I feel like I didn’t get quite enough time with the quiet.”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“You can do whatever you want and be whoever you want without being bound by a list of invisible rules and the guilt that comes hand in hand with not following them.”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Anxiety is beautiful but it is exhausting It’s like playing tug-of-war constantly with what is within your control and what isn’t”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Being an anxious person is being so thoughtful it makes you feel sick It’s fearing the worst because you want the best It’s sweating the small things because everything matters to you Do you know how special it is to care as much as you do?”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Anxiety is beautiful because it’s just you wanting things to go right so badly It’s just you caring so much that it’s debilitating Anxiety shows up because you want the most out of every single day So you worry that isn’t going to happen”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I hope that one day you can sit with yourself at the end of a busy day And it is as restful and safe as walking through your door on a cold night”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“There’s a version of you and I that got it right Somewhere out there, in some alternate universe We write grocery lists, we find lost car keys, we have so many Sunday mornings left We kiss goodbye at the door so quickly we almost miss”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“And I think the very worst Is that I took the pain and anger And remorse and constant sadness And I called it love”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I didn’t even want a lot I just wanted kindness And I’ll never know why that Was just so much to ask”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“It is a constant tossup between wondering how I ever didn’t know you And being grateful for the time we were strangers Because it somehow molded our edges to fit perfectly together Like every person and every moment that ever mattered Were employees of fate in charge of only you and me”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I’m not anywhere near eighty now And I keep thinking that thinking about you is only a phase It’s only a phase It has to be a phase But I guess I won’t know until I’m eighty”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Sometimes I have to stop for a moment in disbelief To come to terms with the fact That you and I are not close friends anymore”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“It would’ve taken me a long time To know what love feels like If I hadn’t loved you”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I hope the mention of mid-November makes you feel haunted in ways that are both good and bad. I hope the pages about grey days and wet sidewalks make you think of someone in particular. I hope you’ve forgiven them.”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“Like every person and every moment that ever mattered Were employees of fate in charge of only you and me”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“You watched as I turned from a person to a puzzle As cracks formed slowly on every part of me I ever showed you And once I was fully crumbled You sloppily packed me up in a box for the next person Who will have to do their best to fill in the blanks”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“I am so grateful that you didn’t let me have you Even while I begged for you on my knees As if my bones on the ground were the only painful thing about it As if persuading you was the only hardship I’d face As if loving someone as a first choice Would feel reciprocated equally by someone loving me as a favor Thank you for not letting me have you I can’t thank you for not letting me love you, though Because I really think I did”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

“But both are equally worthy And there truthfully never has been a version of you That you thought was good while it was yours You only wanted it back after it was gone And that cycle will continue for the rest of your life.”
― Josie Balka, I Hope You Remember: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living