the tongue-tied aches Of unacknowledged love

So much of what we live goes on inside— 

The diaries of grief, the tongue-tied aches 

Of unacknowledged love are no less real 

For having passed unsaid. What we conceal 

Is always more than what we dare confide. 

Think of the letters that we write our dead. 

 

[Dana Gioia {1950- } 'Unsaid', from 99 Poems New and Selected]