It’s been a while since our last creative writing collection, but our Strathclyde Telegraph writers have poured their hearts out this Valentine’s day, creating a collaboration of love poems, sonnets, and and prose. Ooh la la.

We’ll be updating this section with more love-themed fiction and poetry, so keep checking for updates!

I Fell in Love Again 

So, it would seem I fell in love again, 

despite the bands of hurt around my heart. 

I gave myself to love right from the start; 

but I admit that we should have been friends 

because starting in lust it always ends 

as quickly as it began, you will part, 

cast aside, an unfinished work of art. 

You admit what you had was just pretend. 

Just that moment of love felt like enough 

to prove that I could have like all others, 

the right to feel, I am important too. 

But reality does not feel like love, 

like the gentle caress of a lover, 

it is course, it is cold, and it is true. 

DS Coremans 

put a little love on me

By Kate Connor

Sal slid the pin into Cami’s freshly styled curls, watching them spring into place. She was so beautiful. Almost as if reading her thoughts, Cami asked Sal if she looked okay. Of course she does, Sal thought to herself, she always does. Sal watched as Cami fiddled with the hem of the black satin of her dress; it fell to just above the knee and flared out slightly from the hip, like a dress from the ‘50s. Cami’s feet were covered with a pair of pink flats, which really shouldn’t match, but somehow Cami made them work.

Sal had dressed herself up too; trying to pretend to herself that she would be the one leaving with her, instead of him. She turned away to look at herself in the mirror, swaying slightly, to watch the deep blue of her sleeves shimmer under the harsh bathroom lights. They rippled like waves.

Sal felt Cami begin to shake slightly, her nerves overcoming her, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She squeezed. “It’s okay,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

Cami met Sal’s eyes, and all of a sudden, she was locked there, hypnotised by her eyes. She could feel herself leaning forwards, closer and closer, until they were almost nose to nose, when a soft knock at the front door broke the spell. And the moment was lost.

Cami grabbed Sal by the hand and pulled her from the room. They descended the stairs together, Cami leading and Sal trailing slightly behind. She had impulse to hold firmer to Cami, take her back upstairs, watch movies and drink their spiked milkshakes, instead of letting this boy take her out. It felt wrong – not just because of Sal’s feelings for her – but because they had always spent this day together, just the two of them, ever since they were small and learned what “Valentine’s Day” was. Back when they had regular shakes instead of spiked ones, and back when they swore they would never let a boy get in the way of their traditions.

They reached the last step, far too quickly for Sal’s liking, and there he stood, beaming up at her. There was no doubting their feelings for one another; painted so clearly in their eyes as they gazed at each other. Sal sighed slightly and Cami let go of her hand.

Sal offered to take a picture of them before they left and slapped a smile across her face as she did so. A real smile began to peek at the edges of her lips when Cami jumped with excitement at the prospect of having her photo taken. They stood, mostly in silence, listening to the cathartic click of the camera before he took Cami’s hand, nodded his head towards Sal, and pulled Cami into his fancy open top car.

The door closed firmly behind them, and Sal had to take a moment, standing in the hallway, listening to his car pull away. Tears that had been burning in her throat all afternoon finally fell.

Happy Valentines, she thought.

Inspired by: Put A Little Love On Me by Niall Horan