Finding Humor in Marriage
Laughter isn't just the best medicine; it's the glue that keeps long relationships flexible and fun.
On our tenth anniversary, my partner gave me a card that said: "Ten years of putting up with your terrible puns. I'd do it again." I laughed so hard I cried, which, if you know my partner, is exactly the point.
Humor has been one of the most underrated tools in our marriage. Not humor as deflection or sarcasm, but the genuine, shared laughter that says: we're in this together, and it's okay to not take everything so seriously. That spirit runs through Positive Love Poetry: love doesn't have to be solemn to be sincere.
Why Love Needs Laughter
Marriage, or any long partnership, involves a lot of ordinary difficulty. Bills, schedules, miscommunications, the slow accumulation of each other's quirks. Without humor, all of that weight can feel crushing.
Laughter creates space. It softens edges. It reminds you that the person who forgot to take out the trash again is the same person whose laugh still makes your heart skip.
The Poetry of Humor
This is why I wrote Love-Smitten, a collection dedicated to humorous, visual love poetry. Poems like FunFillyFanTastic and All's Well that Ends Well, Almost celebrate the absurd, wonderful comedy of sharing a life with someone. You can see the hammock flip. You can hear the public banana embarrassment.
"I guess you won," you concede. "I know. See how I played that?!" "Got you right where I want you."
Love poetry doesn't have to be solemn to be sincere. Some of the most honest things I've ever written are also the funniest.
How to Invite More Humor In
Don't take yourself too seriously. The ability to laugh at your own mistakes is a gift to your partner.
Create inside jokes. They're relationship shorthand, a private language that says "we belong to each other."
Find comedy in the ordinary. Tuesday nights, grocery shopping, assembling furniture: all of it is material if you're paying attention.
On this Valentine's Day, and every day, remember: romance and humor aren't opposites. They're partners. And the couples who laugh together tend to stay together.