Poems about Grief and Loss
This is a collection of poems about grief that I wanted to share. Some may help in ways to clarify
the many emotions around losing someone close. It’s such a confusing time and the mixed
feelings come and go, sometimes it can be comforting to know that others are having similar thoughts.
Remember How They Loved You
by Donna Ashworth
On those days
when you miss someone the most,
as though your memories
are sharp enough to slice through skin and bone,
remember how they loved you.
Remember how they loved you
and do that,
for yourself.
In their name,
in their honour.
Love yourself,
as they loved you.
They would like that.
On those days
when you miss someone the most,
love yourself harder.
From Girl (Remastered)
by Jessica Jocelyn
I have one foot
stuck in sadness,
while the other foot
is in the doorway to happiness,
parts of me dance
in the sunshine,
while the other parts
drown in the rain.
I am the one in the room
who laughs the loudest
while the grief stings
and pulls me backward.
I exist simultaneously
happy and sad,
and at any given moment
either one can take over,
don’t try to pull me
one way or the other,
because one can’t
exist without the other.
On the Death of the Beloved
by John O’Donahue
Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts
Where no storm on night or pain can reach you.
Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives,
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of color.
The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.
Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the alter of the heart,
Your mind always sparkled
With the wonder at things.
Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.
We look toward each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.
Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.
Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Besides us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.
When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.
May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.
Alive And Well And Shopping In Aldi
By Amy Redmond
I’ve an idea a South Indian
vegetarian curry would be good
So here I am rummaging through boxes
trying to find a few decent
red peppers
unswaddled in plastic
And I turn around and see
my dead father
combing the shelves
basket in hand
without a care in the world
He looks up at me
double takes
gives me a second glance.
Hello I want to say,
Hi, Wait, What are you doing here? Can I help you? Where did you go?
Is it you?
I realise now that it’s Ash Wednesday
Is this some joke the church is playing on
A fallen Catholic like me and a totally
irreverent atheist like him!
So….
Has he defied us all
And come back to life and
is alive and well and shopping in Aldi?
Happily sifting through the weekly bargains
I blink but such an
unmistakable resemblance
drives me to follow this man stealthily,
aisle by aisle.
Slightly stooped though nimble
Check
Grey crew cut sticking up at the back of his neck
Check
Wax jacket, loose and comfortable
Check
Trendy jeans
Check
The shoes
It is the shoes that
give this impersonator away
Flat and navy with a white plimsole
Dad would never be caught dead in those.
Winner of the HeadStuff Poetry Competition 2018 (Theme ‘Surprise Encounters’)
Spiderweb
by Ryan Kay
From other
angles the
fibers look
fragile, but
not from the
spider’s, always
hauling course
ropes, hitching
lines to the
best posts
possible. It’s
heavy work
everyplace,
fighting sag,
winching up
give. It
isn’t ever
delicate
to live.
Memory of My Father
by Patrick Kavanagh
Every old man I see
Reminds me of my father
When he had fallen in love with death
One time when sheaves were gathered.
That man I saw in Gardner Street
Stumbled on the kerb was one,
He stared at me half-eyed,
I might have been his son.
And I remember the musician
Faltering over his fiddle
In Bayswater, London,
He too set me the riddle.
Every old man I see
In October-coloured weather
Seems to say to me:
"I was once your father."
Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
by Mary Elizabeth Fry
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I missed you quietly today
Becky Hemsley 2024
I missed you quietly today. So quietly that no one noticed.
I missed you as I climbed out of bed and as I brushed my teeth; when I waited at the lights on the drive into work and as I heard the rain outside my window.
I missed you as I ordered lunch and as I kicked off my shoes when I got home; as I switched off the lights and climbed into bed for the night.
I missed you without tears or noise or fanfare.
But oh how I felt it.
I felt it in the morning, at lunchtime, in the evening and at night. I felt it as I woke, as I waited, as I worked. I felt it at home, on the road, in the light, in the dark, in the rain.
I felt it in every one of those moments, each one sitting heavier and heavier as the weight of me missing you kept growing and growing.
Yes, I missed you so quietly today.
But I felt it so loudly.
I have compiled a selection of Poems and Verses for Memorial Cards
this may help you in choosing the wording for your card.
Great Grief
by Donna Ashworth
Don’t fall out of love with the world
because they no longer live in it.
Instead, be grateful
that this world produced them.
Be glad
that this life ever existed
and that you
were blessed enough to love them then
and love them still.
Don't fall out of love with this world
because it could not keep
your heart whole.
instead
let love be the glue
patch it up
and fill it with joy
joy that you know
first-hand in this bittersweet conundrum
that great grief
is born only
of great love.
When Great Trees Fall
by Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephant
slumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to them,
takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill
with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored,
never to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed .
We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
For the Dying
by John O’Donahue
May death come gently towards you,
Leaving you time to make your way
Through the cold embrace of fear
To the place of inner tranquility.
May death arrive only after a long life
To find you at home among your own
With every comfort and care you require.
May your leave-taking be gracious,
Enabling you to hold dignity
Through awkwardness and illness.
May you see the reflection
Of your life's kindness and beauty
In all the tears that fall for you.
As your eyes focus on each face,
May your soul take its imprint
Drawing each image within
As companions for the journey.
May you find for each one you love
A different locket of jewelled words
To be worn around the heart
To warm your absence.
May someone who knows and loves
The complex village of your heart
Be there to echo you back to yourself
And create a sure word-raft
To carry you to the further shore.
May your spirit feel
The surge of true delight
When the veil of the visible
Is raised, and you glimpse again
The living faces
Of departed family and friends.
May there be some beautiful surprise
Waiting for you inside death,
Something you never knew or felt,
Which with one simple touch
Absolves you of all loneliness and loss,
As you quicken within the embrace
For which your soul was eternally made.
May your heart be speechless
At the sight of the truth
Of all your belief had hoped,
Your heart breathless
In the light and lightness
Where each and every thing
Is at last its true self
Within that serene belonging
That dwells beside us
On the other side
Of what we see.