Self Love Poems To Inspire Confidence and Self Esteem

— Lang Leav

To Myself (excerpt)

Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you
I believe I will see you again…

— W.S Merwin 

this is a long drive.

— JH Hard 

Desiderata (excerpt)

You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here…

— Max Ehrmann

is how you teach others to love you.

— Rupi Kaur

— Morgan Harper Nichols

— Whitney Houston | Greatest Love of All lyrics

The girl has always been half goddess, half hell.

— Nikita Gill

as the love of myself.

— hm

— Oscar Wilde

The Guest House (Excerpt)

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival…

— Rumi 

— Voltaire 

— Alex Vasilu

Invictus (Excerpt)

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

— William Ernest Henley

They keep saying that beautiful is something a girl needs to be. But honestly?

Forget that.

Don’t be beautiful.

Be angry, be intelligent, be witty, be klutzy, be interesting, be funny, be adventurous, be crazy, be talented – there are an eternity of other things to be other than beautiful.

And what is beautiful anyway but a set of letters strung together to make a word?

Be your own definition of amazing, always.

That is so much more important than anything beautiful, ever.

— Nikita Gill

to compete. 

i am here 

to grow 

and be free

— Yung Pueblo

You must love yourself with joy to fill your heart with bliss and happiness.

― Debasish Mridha

— Morgan Harper Nichols

every heart hides wounds

that never bleed

— Alex Vasilu

— Brene Brown

— Beau Taplin

— Oprah Winfrey

to change the past

it made me

who i am today

i only want

to learn from it

and live in a new way

— Yung Pueblo 

to compete. 

i am here 

to grow 

and be free

— Yung Pueblo 

— Morgan Harper Nichols

is to be your truest self

— Chelsie Diane

like someone you love

— Brene Brown

— Strength Courage and Wisdom (lyrics) | India Arie

I am not fully wise,

I am still on my way. 

What matters is that

I am moving forward.

— Yung Pueblo

— Rupi Kaur

— Nikita Gill

have moments

in the sunlight

that your soul 

never forgets

— Morgan Harper Nichols

from seed

to full bloom

— Alex Vasilu

— RH Sin

— Me (lyrics) | Meg Myers

Tell your daughters how you love your body.

Tell them how they must love theirs.

Tell them to be proud of every bit of themselves—

from their tiger stripes to the soft flesh of their thighs,

whether there is a little of them or a lot,

whether freckles cover their face or not,

whether their curves are plentiful or slim,

whether their hair is thick, curly, straight, long or short.

Tell them how they inherited

their ancestors, souls in their smiles,

that their eyes carry countries

that breathed life into history,

that the swing of their hips

does not determine their destiny.

Tell them never to listen when bodies are critiqued.

Tell them every woman’s body is beautiful

because every woman’s soul is unique.

— Nikita Gill

Skip to a poem

• Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou
• Still I Rise (excerpt) – Maya Angelou
• Love After Love – Derek Walcott
• ‘Hope’ Is The Thing With Feathers – Emily Dickinson
• Wild Geese (excerpt) – Mary Oliver
• The Journey (excerpt) – Mary Oliver
• I Wandered As Lonely as a Cloud (excerpt) – William Wordsworth
• Variation on a Theme By Rilke – Denise Levertov
• A Psalm of Life (excerpt) – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The Light of Stars (excerpt) – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Acquainted With The Night – Robert Frost
• If (excerpt) – Rudyard Kipling
• The Fruit of Courage – Robert L Martin

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size   

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,   

The stride of my step,   

The curl of my lips.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,   

That’s me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,   

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.   

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees. 

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,   

And the flash of my teeth,   

The swing in my waist,   

And the joy in my feet.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered   

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,   

They say they still can’t see. 

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,   

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.   

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud. 

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,   

The bend of my hair,   

the palm of my hand,   

The need for my care. 

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Still I Rise (excerpt)

by Maya Angelou 

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise…

Love After Love (excerpt)

by Derek Walcott

Give back your heart
to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you
all your life…

“Hope” Is THE Thing With Feathers

by Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm –

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –

And on the strangest Sea –

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

Wild Geese (excerpt)

by Mary Oliver

…Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

The Journey (excerpt)

by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

…

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (excerpt)

by William Wordsworth

…For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.

Variation on a Theme by Rilke

by Denise Levertov

A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me–a sky, air, light:

a being.  And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task,  The day’s blow

rang out, metallic–or it was I, a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.

A Psalm Of Life (excerpt)

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

…Lives of great men all remind us

   We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labor and to wait.

The light Of Stars (excerpt)

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And thou, too, whosoe’er thou art,

  That readest this brief psalm,

As one by one thy hopes depart,

  Be resolute and calm. 

O fear not in a world like this,

  And thou shalt know erelong,

Know how sublime a thing it is

  To suffer and be strong.

Acquainted With The Night

by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. 

I have been one acquainted with the night.

If (excerpt)

by Rudyard Kipling

…If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it…

The Fruit of Courage (Excerpt)

by Robert L Martin

…Finding where my retaliation led me to,

Seeing the fruit of courage blossom before me,

And realizing that I am the master of my will.

Now I can prove to myself

That I can reach the summit.

Thank God that I am worthy.