Grief Poems
'Tis Good—The Looking Back On Grief
by Emily Dickinson
660
'Tis good—the looking back on Grief—
To re-endure a Day—
We thought the Mighty Funeral—
Of All Conceived Joy—
To recollect how Busy Grass
Did meddle—one by one—
Till all the Grief with Summer—waved
......
The Sea Inside
by Jonathan Goff
The Sea Inside
When the earth was formless and void,
what did You see?
What shimmered in that hush
before the first word?
What stirred in You,
to utter light
into the silence?
When the Spirit hovered over the waters,
did it tremble?
......
The Deserted Garden
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I mind me in the days departed,
How often underneath the sun
With childish bounds I used to run
To a garden long deserted.
The beds and walks were vanished quite;
And wheresoe'er had struck the spade,
The greenest grasses Nature laid
To sanctify her right.
......
Xx
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each ?--
I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach
My hand to hold my spirit so far off
From myself--me--that I should bring thee proof
In words, of love hid in me out of reach.
Nay, let the silence of my womanhood
Commend my woman-love to thy belief,--
......
Grief
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,
In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express
Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death--
Most like a monumental statue set
......
Drowning in the Sea of Sorrow
by Mario Odekerken
I am drowning
in the sea of sorrow,
no storm,
just the weight
of stillness.
Waves do not crash,
they whisper
regret,
pulling me under
......
The Sea Inside
by Jonathan Goff
The Sea Inside
When the earth was formless and void,
what did You see?
What shimmered in that hush
before the first word?
What stirred in You,
to utter light
into the silence?
When the Spirit hovered over the waters,
did it tremble?
......
letter from a quieter version of me
by Rikske Kessner
letter from a quieter version of me
for my love
love— some days i still hear it.
the beeping, the boots in the hallway,
the way someone said
we almost lost him
without saying my name.
they tell me it was twenty-nine pints.
......
I cried every day until i didn’t
by Tabitha Scott
dear friend
thank you for showing up
I cried every day
some days no idea why
just tears just the ache
just the silence
the tears never ran out
and neither did you
you didn’t ask me to stop
you didn’t look away but
......
Grief
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
I remember the grief in Samuel
when Saul failed,
like the grief in Nile
when blood crept into it —
just like it creeps into the bones of
this earth.
The rage in grief is distant but distinct,
escorted by bits of frozen nuts
and wizened grains of desert sand,
......
