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Poetry by Rowan Evans

Tag: letting go

  • Fallen Angel’s Reckoning (Remix) — A Poem About Heartbreak, Rebirth & Reclaiming Yourself

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Sometimes an old poem doesn’t need to be left in the past.

    Sometimes you have to return to it after you’ve changed.

    Fallen Angel’s Reckoning (Remix) revisits a poem I originally wrote on June 6, 2024. The original was already telling a story I understood well: love that promised forever, a fall from an imagined heaven, and the painful process of reclaiming yourself after the promise disappears.

    But I was a different writer when I wrote it.

    And, more importantly, I was a different person.

    The 2026 version isn’t meant to erase the original. It is a conversation with it.

    I kept the central imagery—the angel, Lucifer, the fall from heaven, the halo, the darkness, the broken vow—because those symbols still belong to the emotional architecture of the piece. But I wanted to push the mythology further this time. Icarus enters the story. The fall becomes more physical, more violent, more deliberate. The speaker isn’t simply descending from something that once felt like heaven; they are plummeting from it.

    And then there is the ending.

    In 2024, I wrote about newfound wings.

    In 2026, I wrote about broken wings.

    That change matters to me.

    Because strength doesn’t always mean becoming untouched by what happened. Sometimes you keep the scars. Sometimes you keep the broken pieces. Sometimes you discover that you can still fly without first repairing everything that hurt you.

    The angel doesn’t become an angel again.

    They don’t return to the heaven they lost.

    They don’t need the person who made them feel divine to give them their identity back.

    They become something else.

    A fallen angel who embraces the fallen.

    The broken.

    The free.

    That is what this remix ultimately became: not a poem about getting back what was lost, but about discovering that losing it didn’t mean losing yourself.

    I didn’t rewrite the 2024 version because it was wrong.

    I rewrote it because I’ve had two more years to understand the fall.

    And sometimes the person who wrote the first poem deserves to hear what the person you became has learned since then.

    — Rowan Evans

    A fallen angel with broken wings stands among the ruins of a shattered heavenly realm beneath dark clouds and a distant light.
    I don’t need unbroken wings to fly. I just need to remember that they were mine before anyone promised me heaven.

    Fallen Angel’s Reckoning (Remix)
    Poetry by Rowan Evans
    [written July 23th, 2026]

    I remember when you said forever,
    but forever never came, 
    so I fell like Lucifer,
    from the heavens down I tumbled.
    Returned your love,
    played your game—
    once an angel in your eyes,
    now in darkness I crumbled. 

    Your promises were wings that lifted me high, 
    but they melted away, when I reached the sun—
    just like Icarus, the light was my undoing.
    It wasn’t just a fall, I was plummeting…
     
    a fallen star,
    cast from the sky, 
    now I walk in shadows,
    where our love met its end. 

    Like Lucifer—I embraced the night, 
    wandering through realms of regret and pain, 
    I shed my halo,
    lost my light, 
    no longer an angel,
    in your eyes or in my name. 

    Yet in this darkness,
    a new path unfurls—

    I find strength in the ashes of our broken vow, 
    rising from the ruins of our shattered world.
     
    I reclaim my soul,
    I’m reborn here and now. 

    No longer bound by your empty decree—
     
    I soar with broken wings, 
    embracing the fallen,
    the broken, the free,
    a fallen angel finding strength
    I never knew I’d own.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Homecoming]
    Homecoming is a return to the Gothic aesthetic at the heart of Rowan Evans’s poetry, blending Poe, mythology, horror icons, moonlight, ravens, and darkness into a meditation on artistic identity and finding your way back to the voice that feels like home.

    [The Monster in the Margins]
    Drawing inspiration from horror icons like Michael Myers, Ghostface, Freddy Krueger, and Pennywise, this poem explores the darker side of creativity—where inspiration becomes an unstoppable force lurking just beyond the edge of the page.

    [The Monster in the Margins II]
    The Monster in the Margins II transforms Rowan Evans’s Seven Deadly Sins mythology into a horror story written between the lines, where Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Pride, Envy, and Gluttony become monsters growing from pain, grudges, and scars.

    [The Unkindness Descends]
    “The Unkindness Descends” is a Gothic symbolic poem exploring collapse, transformation, and the unsettling experience of being witnessed during moments of unraveling. Through raven imagery, ambiguity, and ritualistic atmosphere, the poem invites multiple interpretations—spiritual, psychological, ominous, or transformative.

    [Gospel in Crimson]
    When writing becomes ritual and love becomes devotion, the line between creation and worship begins to blur. Gospel in Crimson explores obsession, artistry, and the sacred act of expression.

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

  • Poet’s Curse — A Poem About Heartbreak, Attachment & Letting Go

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    There is a particular kind of heartbreak that doesn’t have a villain.

    Sometimes nobody betrayed you.

    Nobody lied.

    Nobody promised you something they couldn’t give.

    Sometimes someone simply exists, speaks to you, makes you feel something—and your heart decides to build an entire mythology around it.

    That is where Poet’s Curse came from.

    I’ve joked before about having a poet’s curse: the tendency to fall into feelings quickly, to hear a little beauty in someone’s voice and suddenly find myself wading into the waves after it. But beneath the joke is something I’ve had to become more honest about.

    Sometimes my heartbreak is partly mine.

    Not because I was wrong to feel what I felt, but because I have a habit of giving pieces of myself away before I’ve figured out whether there is somewhere safe for them to land.

    The person in this poem didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. She didn’t promise me forever. She didn’t lead me somewhere just to abandon me. She talked—and I listened. I heard a siren’s song, and
    I chose to wade into the water.

    So this isn’t a poem about blaming her.

    It’s about looking at myself afterward and admitting something uncomfortable:

    I learned how to hold on long before I learned how to let go.

    And maybe that’s the real curse.

    Not that I love too deeply.

    Not that I feel too much.

    But that once I give someone a piece of my heart, I don’t always know how to take my hands away from the fire.

    Sometimes the only way forward is to stop calling that weakness a curse and start learning the skill I never had—

    how to let go without becoming less capable of love.

    — Rowan Evans

    A fountain pen and open notebook beside dark ocean waves while glowing fragments of a crimson heart drift away.
    Sometimes the hardest thing to learn isn’t how to love—it’s how to let go of what you’ve already given away.

    Poet’s Curse
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    Here we go again
    it’s another season of sin,
    the poet’s back
    heartbroken with a pen.

    Yeah, went and fuckin’
    did it again—

    it’s my fault
    my heart is cracked,
    with pieces missing.

    You see, I give them away
    too freely, it’s such a pain
    to be me, I get hooked
    too easily—

    she did nothing wrong,
    she didn’t lead me on, just talked
    and I heard a siren’s song—

    I waded into the waves,
    prayed for things to change.

    Pardon the moment of slowness,
    give me a moment while I own this
    and take accountability for my part
    in breaking my heart.

    It’s a poet’s curse—

    I only learned how to hold on.
    I never learned how to let go,
    my feelings and emotion
    like hot coals in my hands.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [When I Fall]
    When I Fall is a vulnerable poem about loving without reservation, feeling everything deeply, and refusing to make the heart smaller just because wholehearted love can sometimes lead to loneliness and pain.

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

  • Hot Coals: A Poetic Reflection on Anger, Vulnerability, and Courage

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    I wrote Hot Coals for the men who’ve been told that strength is silence, and that showing emotion makes you weak. As someone who has carried fire inside themselves for a long time, I know firsthand how heavy it can be to hold anger and pain alone. Holding it like hot coals doesn’t make you stronger—it only burns you from within. Vulnerability is not weakness. It is courage. And letting yourself feel, fully, is the bravest thing you can do.

    Hand holding glowing hot coals, symbolizing the burden of suppressed anger and emotional release.
    Holding anger like hot coals scars the heart. Hot Coals by Rowan Evans explores the courage in vulnerability and the liberation of letting go.

    Hot Coals
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    They tell you to clench your fists, hold tight—
    Let the fire burn bright, don’t let in the light.
    Anger, rage—your only currency,
    The world’s measure of your masculinity.

    But no one warned you of the burn,
    The searing pain you never learn,
    That holding anger like hot coals in hand
    Scars the heart in ways you can’t withstand.

    They say to stand tall, to never cry,
    Keep your voice low, don’t ask why.
    But the flames flicker and twist inside,
    A storm of feelings you try to hide.

    Each coal a bitter word unsaid,
    A wound you carry in your head.
    It singes, it smolders, beneath your skin,
    A quiet battle you’ll never win.

    Let go, I whisper, of this deadly fire—
    There’s more to feel, more to aspire.
    Rage will only leave you burned,
    A lesson you’ve yet to learn.

    There’s beauty in tears, in the gentle sigh,
    In love’s soft touch and the freedom to cry.
    To release the coals, let your heart unfold,
    Is the bravest thing, not a story untold.

    Feel the coolness of the rain on your face,
    The warmth of peace, of a softer grace.
    Embrace the spectrum, let it flow—
    You’re not just a vessel for anger’s glow.

    For holding on to fire won’t make you strong;
    It only burns, and for far too long.
    Set down the coals, let them fade to ash,
    And rise from the flames, free at last.

    If you’d like to explore more of my work, you can find it in The Library of Ashes.