a poem written for dearest friends and cherished family; for anyone suffering loss and heartache. I hope this can hold you, somehow.
You see,
Grief is ragged
Grief knows no bounds
It seeps into edges
Lays hold of the ground
We stand on
And makes it quake
Nothing is safe
Or sacred
That cannot be ravaged
By grief’s savage wake
Grief is a locket
A momento
We never asked to wear
So heavy, so aching
So completely unfair
A reminder of what was
That is now lost to us
That what we loved
Can no longer be grasped
But the love
Still lasts
Love doesn’t drift with the past
It stays
And this is why grief
Entangles us so
Once love has dug in its claws,
It doesn’t let go
We beg it to move on
To see it’s self home
That we may lock the door behind it
And be safe
To exhale in silence
To be free from the clamor
And violence
Of a love, whose object has ceased
But as much as we may wish it
Grief cannot be released
But the kindness of it is
That grief is not at war with peace
And though it may seem this way
In the first few days
Of our weeping
While the tea is steeping
And we spend our daylight hours sleeping
Peace waits on our doorstep
Quietly there
Ready for the moment we think
We simply cannot bear
Ready to invade
The stillness of the air
And let us breathe again
So grief and peace sit together
Holding hands
Grief murmurs, ‘love hurts when it’s vast’
And peace whispers
‘You are loved when you are sad’
And they’ll stay
Walk with you
See you through
Your good days and your bad
And someday
The locket grief made
Will no longer ache
As deeply
Or bleed so freely
You’ll come hold that locket dear
Because it keeps
What you so loved near
Near to your heart
And peace promises never to part
And life carries you along
And you learn to love again.
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