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.
Flickers of guilt kindle regret for all that was left unsaid or undone. There are days when you wake up happy; again, inside the fullness of life, until the moment breaks and you are thrown back onto the black tide of loss.
Days when you have your heart back, you are able to function well until in the middle of work or encounter, suddenly with no warning, you are ambushed by grief. It becomes hard to trust yourself.
All you can depend on now is that Sorrow will remain faithful to itself. More than you, it knows its way and will find the right time to pull and pull the rope of grief until that coiled hill of tears has reduced to its last drop.
Gradually, you will learn acquaintance with the invisible form of your departed; and when the work of grief is done, the wound of loss will heal and you will have learned to wean your eyes from that gap in the air and be able to enter the hearth in your soul where your loved one has awaited your return all the time.
This poem is copyrighted by the poet and is included in the Healing Circles Global poetry wiki because it provides insight, nourishment, and inspiration to the hosts and participants of healing circles. We request that hosts and participants honor the poet’s copyright by not printing or sharing it in any other way. In fact, please support the poet’s work by purchasing the book or going to the website in which this poem was published: To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’ Donahue.
