What Grief Is Like ~ A Poem

It is the image of undoing,

the internal tide

that returns upon itself to erase

the very shore.

It is a cool stream of sympathy

that leaves you shaking once it’s passed.

Like mist, it haunts you in its waking,

this memory, a nightmare never shaken.

It covers all things, waiting

for your every turn.

It holds all things, like a promise

fulfilled, for it is the constant denial of

never having lived.

Groundless, hopeless, wordless.

The last bit of you gives way.

Every cell of your body, awash

with a grief that now holds you,

a new existence to house your soul.

It carries you through seasons.

It folds and unfolds as the clouds do.

It is earth, sky, air, water, fire.

It is a midnight, solaced,

still letting the light through.

And as you move closer,

as it enclosed you,

you see a new face on this body

of grief. You see

you have not been defeated.

Your surrender was of glory and grace,

a place of new growth, the spirit

of cosmic change.

It was your own crossing over.

It was made part of you and you,

made new.

This is a grief longing to be held.

This, the mood of the universe.

-Jennifer Williamson