Grief Poems
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly
pressed me against his heart, I would perish
in the embrace of his stronger existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure and are awed
because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Each single angel is terrifying.
And so I force myself, swallow and hold back
the surging call of my dark sobbing.
......
For Grief
by John O'Donohue
When you lose someone you love,
Your life becomes strange,
The ground beneath you becomes fragile,
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;
And some dead echo drags your voice down
Where words have no confidence
Your heart has grown heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded others too,
No one knows what has been taken from you
When the silence of absence deepens.
......
A Dreadful Embrace.
by Hari Krishnan B V
Arousing horridly hatred breeds aching sorrowful grief,
Words massacred every breath down the diaphragm.
Eyes plunge stinging tears down the bloodshot sclera,
Frigid fills with your muffled cries of mellifluous voice.
Limbs turning numb sans hurling hazardous venom,
Crawling to her like a microbe searching its genome.
Our deafening cries engulfed the infirmary chamber,
Overwhelming with misery, weeping angels flew apart.
She gushed blood for in love, hidden spirits envied us,
......
An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow
by Les Murray
The word goes round Repins,
the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
at Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
the Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
and men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There's a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can't stop him.
The traffic in George Street is banked up for half a mile
and drained of motion. The crowds are edgy with talk
and more crowds come hurrying. Many run in the back streets
......
"How Great My Grief" (Triolet)
by Thomas Hardy
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee!
- Have the slow years not brought to view
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Nor memory shaped old times anew,
Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was my fate to know thee?
Heart drenched in insanity
by Fathima Valliyangal
You know what, Sherlock?
Love? That’s pathetic
His arms were drenched in her cologne,
the other day,
the smile so nefarious,
conniving yet innocent.
I gave him my heart, you know?
I gave him elusive veins and Sherlock,
what do I get? I am deceived,
as though my eyes are blinded
......
Unforgiving past
by Fathima Valliyangal
Night, a solaceful, distant memory
When you left my already-rifted heart
It repeats, this haunting memory,
I try, alright?
I try to forget, I try to move on.
But this memory, it just has to,
repeat itself, over time again,
and I am, but a slave of the past.
The last time you said ‘Goodbye’,
......
For Achilles
by ash m
Prideful Achilles. Now sorrowful Achilles. Achilles
whose handsome countenance now defiled
with dust he caught and poured over his face. Mighty Achilles
laying in dust, tearing at his hair -
mightily in his might.
Achilles, worth an entire army,
grieving in his proud heart, now having the need of another
to hold his hand lest he cut his throat with iron - Achilles who
now cried, so terribly aloud, she, from the depths of the sea,
......
A Dreadful Embrace.
by Hari Krishnan B V
Arousing horridly hatred breeds aching sorrowful grief,
Words massacred every breath down the diaphragm.
Eyes plunge stinging tears down the bloodshot sclera,
Frigid fills with your muffled cries of mellifluous voice.
Limbs turning numb sans hurling hazardous venom,
Crawling to her like a microbe searching its genome.
Our deafening cries engulfed the infirmary chamber,
Overwhelming with misery, weeping angels flew apart.
She gushed blood for in love, hidden spirits envied us,
......
Who really are you?
by Kevin Junior Ojang Ojong
I sat with a man long enough, and I didn’t know his name. We were together always, and together never.
He came to me when I called, and he came when I did not. Cloaked in black with a sash of red like blood distilled, a red that could not be described.
He had fire in his eyes and always wore an expression that terrified me.
We sat in silence while the steam rose from his body, and his answers to all questions were grunts and grunts alone.
“What is your name?” I asked him and he said “I am an emotion”. I thought to myself then you must be Anger.
......
