Grief Poems
Long Distance Ii
by Tony Harrison
Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.
You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.
......
The Toys
by Coventry Patmore
My little Son, who look'd from thoughtful eyes
And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,
Having my law the seventh time disobey'd,
I struck him, and dismiss'd
With hard words and unkiss'd,
—His Mother, who was patient, being dead.
Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,
I visited his bed,
But found him slumbering deep,
With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet
......
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.
......
Dejection: An Ode
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon,
With the old Moon in her arms ;
And I fear, I fear, My Master dear !
We shall have a deadly storm.
Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence
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I
......
Drapple-Thorned Aphrodite,
by Sappho
Dapple-throned Aphrodite,
eternal daughterf God,
snare-knitter! Don't, I beg you,
cow my heart with grief! Come,
as once when you heard my far-
off cry and, listening, stepped
from your father's house to your
gold car, to yoke the pair whose
......
She died
by Dina Shehada
Everything about her is so special
You touch her hand and feel it's cold
As if it was a metal
Asking the lord
Please make her feel better
Those stunning eyes
Their gorgeous color
Look at them and feel her magic power
Let your hand run through her hair
You will know how it feels to touch the rainbow rain
......
Weight Below
by We'll Get to that
...
...
Like Titanic's anchor dragging me low,
Deep into Silence, where no words can go.
Like a police tracker, bound to my bone,
No freedom for me—I’m trapped and alone.
The clocks keep ticking, yet still I stand,
......
My Murder Confession
by Melvyn Kairupan
In a haze, I stumble,
tripping over my own feet,
dragging my breath through a hill drowned in fog.
Cold. Fucking cold.
Solitude chewing through my skin,
biting into my bones.
And then—
you.
......
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’,
......
