A Romantic Love Story of Two Poets: When Words Lead to Forever
Updated: Sep 4
It started with a poetry live, a spare 5 minutes, and 2 submitted poems. We met on Instagram as two poets writing through grief, growth, and longing.
What began as a fierce attraction and appreciation for each other’s work soon became something even more: late-night conversations, voice notes, vulnerability, and eventually a leap of faith that changed everything.
This is our love story... a fairy tale, or perhaps something even better, if that is possible! A real connection born from words, nurtured across oceans, and carried through airports, bus rides, and border crossings ever since.
Here is a short overview of our journey, starting from heartbreak, leading to an adventure spanning continents, and eventually transitioning to a full-on lifestyle of full-time slow travel around the globe.
Key Takeaways
● How we met: We met through Instagram's poetry community in February 2019, connecting across the Atlantic through words, creativity, and shared experiences.
● Why the story matters to us: Our online friendship became a month-long first date across five countries, an engagement in Cyprus, and eventually a shared home in Canada.
● The lasting thread: In 2021, we gave up our conventional lifestyle and began travelling full-time, building Closer Lives around connection, curiosity, and life beyond borders.
How Poetry Brought Us Together
We were both recovering heartbroken poets on Instagram (cliché, we know, but it's true). In February 2019, we met and found a fairy tale of a relationship.
It's funny how the universe likes to do these things, right!?
That poetry live had only two submitted poems, leaving a spare five minutes. It was a small, seemingly ordinary moment that became the beginning of everything.
From Instagram to Australia
Jenn was living in Canada, and Leon was living in England. We eventually met in person in Australia, where we boarded Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas for a cruise. From there, we began sharing our unfolding story with our followers, friends, and fellow poets on Instagram.
It was a pretty natural and unintentional thing for us to do, really, especially after both being quite active members of the poetry community on Instagram before we connected.
We read poetry LIVE on Instagram and had a community poetry platform page, founded by Jenn (Closer Lives Poetry), where we featured and shared others' work for years.
We eventually paused the page once our full-time travels began, as it became too much to manage alongside life on the road.
Four months after meeting online, and following an extraordinary month-long first date that took us through five countries, we became engaged at Aphrodite's Rock in Cyprus.
Travel has always been a part of our journey; Leon moved to Canada with Jenn in September 2019.
Thankfully, we were able to be together throughout 2020. We remain deeply grateful for that time, as so many couples were unable to see one another or be together during such a difficult year.
Choosing a Life of Full-Time Travel
In January 2021, we decided to make another major change, this time transforming both our lifestyle and our careers.
We sold, donated, or stored almost everything we owned, rented out our property, and set off to build a full-time digital nomad lifestyle.
Go big or go home, right?! It's kind of how we do things…
It's like our motto... our entire relationship required so much trust and faith in both one another and the universe.
A life lived boldly and bravely will indeed be one to be remembered... so here we are, more than seven years later, with 45 countries together under our belts...
Ready to follow the next chapter of Closer Lives?
Find out more about Leon 
Find out more about Jenn
We continue to share the places we visit, the lessons we learn, and the experiences that shape us as we travel slowly around the world.
If our story, outlook, or slightly unconventional way of living resonates with you, we would love to have you join us by signing up on our website and become part of a community built around travel, creativity, curiosity, and meaningful connection.
Still pinching myself to this day... did this actually happen?! What is this life... so blessed, so grateful, so in love!