Author’s Note

This version removes the turn entirely. There is no reaching, no choosing, no ache dressed up as desire. It is a statement of self-sufficiency, not as armor, but as fact.
This poem exists for moments when autonomy is the truth—and that truth needs no softening.

Same poem.
No turn this time.

Rowan Evans


Solitary figure standing calmly in soft light, symbolizing emotional independence, self‑sufficiency, and quiet strength.
“I arrived here intact—assembled by my own hands.”
— Rowan Evans, I Don’t Need You (I Actually Don’t Need You Version)

I Don’t Need You
(I Actually Don’t Need You Version)
Poetry by Rowan Evans

I don’t need you.
I can breathe on my own—
lungs have done it for decades
without asking permission.

I don’t need you.
I can sleep alone,
learn the shape of empty sheets,
make peace with the cold side of the bed.

I don’t need you
to make me whole.
I arrived here intact—
scarred, yes,
but assembled by my own hands.

I don’t need your voice
to steady me,
your name
to keep the dark from biting.
I’ve survived worse silences
than your absence.

I don’t need you
to save me.
I am not drowning.
I am not broken.
I am not waiting
to be rescued.


If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

[I Don’t Need You]Original
A poem about choosing love from a place of wholeness—celebrating independence, intimacy, and the power of saying “I don’t need you, but I want you.”

[I Don’t Need You]Dangerous
“I don’t need you. I breathe. I rise, unbroken, unbent. Yet still, I choose you—dangerous, alive, and all in.” A fiery meditation on independence, desire, and choosing love from a place of strength.

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