Silent fire

“Time fell silent, and the hours grew sullen. Every moment that passed without your name felt like a battle within myself, yet I lost every time to the power of your gaze. As close as a breath, yet as distant as eternity... Without seeing the fire you ignited in my heart, you erased my shadow with your eyes. In a world where you didn’t exist, I burned quietly, turning to ashes as I whispered your name.

Love is a voiceless scream. And I, like a sound without an echo, disappeared into the emptiness. I searched for you beneath the sky, carried you in my heart; unknowingly, eternally...”

Some emotions settle so deeply within a person that you can neither explain them nor escape from them. A deep gaze, a silent smile, or a love for someone whose name you dare not utter takes root slowly in your heart. Unspoken words, invisible fires—they burn silently, consuming you little by little, yet no one knows. That is the greatest loneliness of all: the weight of carrying someone in your heart while you no longer fit in their world.

To love is sometimes to expect nothing in return, to simply love. It becomes an act of existence, a quiet struggle—finding yourself in the eyes of someone with whom you share no bond, building memories from a glance, living in the hope of a touch that will never come. Then, the heart becomes more than flesh and blood; it becomes the bearer of love and the home of longing.

At times, we are prisoners of our own emotions. The roads you walk while saying, “I am leaving as you are arriving”, open to a life where you do not belong. Even separation feels like a chosen loneliness because being present is not enough—you long to be loved there. And while no one sees the fire inside you, you turn to ashes. This fire, however, is the destiny of all who know how to love.

Another side of love is letting go, quietly. Time moves on, the world turns, yet something within you remains still. The love that once blossomed in your heart falls gently like leaves caught in the wind, yet it never completely disappears. Sometimes, you close your eyes just to linger in a dream—to rebuild the happiness you lost in moments you can no longer touch.

Even when everything ends, the love within you does not. A person burns out most in silence, without their beloved ever knowing. For love is burning without making a sound, falling without reaching out, and still finding a space for them in your heart. Perhaps this is not giving up; it is love’s timeless and endless way of existing.

Who knows, perhaps the greatest loneliness is this: to burn in your own fire while the one you love remains oblivious.

To love is sometimes a feeling beyond words, one that can only be whispered by the heart. The person you love becomes the greatest part of your life without even realising it, and you carry this weight in silence. The fire growing inside you flares with every breath, yet it burns only you.

“In one breath, there is you; in another, there is nothing.
On lips that do not speak your name,
I carved each letter of you into my heart.
Even without your touch, your eyes pierce through me,
And you don’t know, I am quietly burning...”

The greatest burden of unrequited love is carrying the weight of emotions lived alone. While the one you love lives calmly, happily—perhaps under another sun—you settle for sharing the same sky. They smile and live a spring in their world, while you cling to the winter hidden in that same smile.

The heart, carrying this weight, chooses silence, because some love has no name. You cannot say, “I am here,” nor can you shout, “I love you!” Love becomes a secret that grows within you but never escapes. That secret takes root over time and echoes silently in the empty spaces inside you.

“With the silence echoing in every step,
I wanted to reach you,
But even the paths felt foreign to me.
Whenever I turned to you,
Your eyes closed every door.
Still, I loved you,
Turning to ashes in my own fire…”

To love is, in truth, a battle for existence. Walking in the shadow of the one you love without ever reaching their heart, living in their absence while building a life from their image—it is a waiting caught between a dream and reality. Sometimes, the furthest distance is the one you feel within your heart. For even as you breathe in their presence, their absence leaves you surrounded by infinite loneliness. That loneliness cannot be spoken, nor can it fade with time.

“Time stands still,
The hours feel lifeless without you...
You are a smile in the distance,
And I am a flower fading in your hands.
You leave without seeing the fire you set,
And I disappear into my own ashes.”

The melancholic side of love is as beautiful as it is consuming. For love, at its purest, is placing someone in the most sacred corner of your heart without expecting anything in return. Whether they know it or not, they are always there—their smile, their voice, their memory. Some loves cannot be spoken; they are simply lived. Some fires are not shown; they burn silently.

And perhaps this is the truest form of love: to burn out for someone without them ever knowing.

That is why, sometimes, a person hides their inner fire, because they know that:

“To say your name alone could never be enough to describe the you I carry in my heart...”

With Love and Respect

Burak Anaturk

Burak Anaturk is a professional civil engineer. He focuses on sharing lessons from his life experiences, exploring diverse perspectives, and discussing personal development topics.

Email: [email protected]