Grief Has No Handles: Poems for the Brave of Heart

By Clarity Henderson

This collection of poems has arisen from over a decade of grief and life changes. Having helped both parents transition from this life, crossing the rainbow bridge into the next realm and grieving the additional cost to a marriage that crumbled under the grief; this period of time produced many poems along with the tears.

The grief journey transitions us into new lives we never dreamed could hold such memories or feel so empty of the loving presences we once took for granted. Perhaps there are poems here to help others through the tough patches in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Sep 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982291457

Book preview

The Lonely Wave

Somewhere out there

In the deep blue sea

Rolling along

Pulled by currents

Is a random wave,

Pushed around the globe,

Battered about

Lost and yearning

For the rocks, beach or person

To crash into

and stop,

Just for a moment.

Grief has no Handles

There is nothing to grip on the wild ride

When the soul is bereft and heart broken

Aching like the surgeon slipped with his knife,

As though there are no stitches or staples or clamps

Big enough to hold the sides of the great divide together.

When your body is being swirled around

Tossed east and west by the tide

There are no handles to grip.

One moment cresting the wave and seeing the shore

The next wallowing in the trough with no help in sight

And nothing to hang onto.

Grief has no handles

When you are cast adrift,

rudderless in this internal sea,

In a tiny life raft, no one can reach

Spinning out of control on swift currents.

Washing moment after moment

In the trough of searing loss,

With no pills or injections to heal the pain.

There is no hope to be found in the waters of grief,

until the day you wake up and find it glassy,

so calm, your ravaged face reflects back at you.

Right there in paddling distance, is a shore,

for a time, you float and watch it

feeling the gentle swell moving you closer.

Are you really ready to let go

of this grief that surrounds and defines you.

It’s been a wild ride to the depths.

Slowly now the gentle undulations

move you toward the shore

By the time you get there you may be ready

to feel solid ground beneath your feet.

Or you can stay rocking in the swell,

giving your wounded soul time is a choice.

Grief has no handles to grip

there is nothing to pull you out