Judgement: The Poem About Accepting the Past Without Living In It
- Jenn & Leon
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
This poem forms part of my Aftermath collection, poetry written after meeting Jenn, where love, reflection, and emotional clarity began to replace chaos.
There are moments in every new relationship where the past quietly finds its way into the present. Not because those feelings still exist, but because our history does.
This poem came from one of those moments.
When Jenn and I met through poetry, she wasn't just getting to know me; she was getting to know years of my writing. Years of poems about previous relationships, heartbreak, confusion, hope, and loss.
Those poems eventually became Out of the Shadows, but before they were ever a book, they were simply honest snapshots of different moments in my life. And that made me nervous.
Not because those poems reflected how I still felt...
...but because they reflected how I once felt.
As poets, we don't write history books; we write emotion. A poem captures exactly how your heart felt in a single moment. That moment may last an hour, a day, or a season, but once it's written, it becomes permanent even though the emotion itself has long since passed.
That's the strange thing about creative writing. Words stay still, but people generally do not. I found myself wondering how Jenn would feel reading poems written years before we had ever met.
Would she understand that those emotions belonged to another version of me?
Would she see them simply as chapters in a much bigger story?
Or would they create doubts that never needed to exist?
Those thoughts eventually became this piece, Judgement. Looking back today, I realize the irony. If those earlier poems had never existed... Jenn may never have discovered me on Instagram.
Those poems were the very reason our paths crossed in the first place. The past wasn't something working against us but something that had quietly brought us together.
Jenn understands this better than most because she's a poet too. She also has shelves of old notebooks and years of writing born from different chapters of her own life.
Occasionally an old piece can still make either of us pause for a moment. That's only human, but poetry isn't a declaration of who we are forever.
Poetry is a record of who we were when the words arrived. There's a huge difference.
Over time I've come to believe something quite simple. Our past explains us. It doesn't imprison us.
Every relationship, every mistake, every heartbreak, and every lesson quietly shapes the person standing in front of you today.
Without those experiences...
...there is no present version of us.
As I've explored throughout Out of the Shadows, growth has never been about pretending the past didn't happen.
It's about understanding it, learning from it, appreciating it for what it taught us, and then choosing to keep walking forward. No judgement.
Judgement
You cannot judge
Someone's past
Because if you do
Your love won't last
They may have done this
They may have done that
But it's done now
That is a fact
I will not lie
It is not easy
To understand
Or accept so easily
Things can hurt
But you must not judge
You must let go
Deny any grudge
For the past defines us
Makes us today
Be grateful for that
And make sure you stay
For you cannot change it
It can't be undone
And why should it be
Even undone
We all have a history
And each to their own
You know a good person
All on their own
Judge what's in front of you
Not what's behind
You will only regret it
For a very long time
© Leon Gregori 2026
Join the Conversation
Every one of us carries a history. Some chapters are beautiful. Some we'd rather forget. But none of them automatically define the person we've become.
Do you think someone's past should influence a new relationship? Are there things you believe should stay in the past, or are there experiences that would genuinely change how you see someone?
I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation:
More From Leon...
Reborn
Written just days after meeting Jenn, this poem captures the exact moment everything changed: when love brought light back into my life and helped me become 'reborn.'
About Leon Gregori
I've been writing poetry since my mid-teens and find it natural to express myself through words. My long-form content focuses on themes of heartbreak and life.
⪢ Explore the Aftermath collection
Discover more poems written after meeting Jenn, with reflections on love, trust, personal growth, creativity, and finding peace after life's darkest chapters.
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