#grief poems on Hello Poetry

Blessing Thabane 42m

I know how to carry pain
not like a burden,
but like a second skin.
I've walked through fire in silence,
kissed betrayal on the cheek
and called it by name.

I know bad words.
Not just the ones they speak,
but the ones they plant
in the soil of a soft heart
and leave to grow wild.

I've tasted different traits
bitterness sweetened by charm,
gentleness sharpened to a blade.
I've danced with shadows in daylight
and called it love.

But this one...
this is new.

This ache that lives in my ribs,
this grief that kicks from inside,
this quiet war I fight
while smiling, while feeding,
while staying alive.

Excuse me,
but I’ve never been pregnant
with someone else's cruelty before.
Excuse me
if I need space
to untangle this web
before I decide which thread to cut.

I will lie here,
wrapped in blankets and restraint,
saying “I’m fine”
while every door in this house
begs to be torn from its hinges.

I want to set this silence on fire.
I want to burn this version of me
and walk barefoot through the ash
until I meet the woman
waiting on the other side
the one who chose herself.

I’ve known pain.
But this one is new.
And still
I will survive.
Because I have to.
Because I always do.

You crossed a line this time. That was foul.

#heartbreak #pain #grief #strength #survival

Artis 17h

layers of skin

I want to peel back your skin
and show off all the layers no one gets to see
I want to crawl inside your skin,
and be that layer—
you never thought,
you needed.

I'll add new layers
that make your skin soft.

maybe then I will understand—
why your skin is so roughly made,
burnt from all the thorns of the world
stepped on and left marks that never seemed to heal.

but you still dont show it, do you?

what’s hiding in those layers of
fake happiness,
pain,
misery?

How do we cut off all the dead skin
make you blossom—
into new skin, that doesn’t cut you with every touch?

Sometimes we carry skin, thats too rough for us to get rid of alone 🥀

#healing #pain #trauma #grief #emotinal #raw #sad

Shane 1d

"New Year's Despair"

Lonely... I'm so lonely
When the clock struck twelve on that silent night
Emotions befell me that caused quite a fright
Sadness and anger
A glimpse of the past
Regret for the days that just couldn't last
I felt like a failure, a reject, a mess
A desolate child stuck in distress
That's who I was
And that's who I'll be
A forever lonely child
Lost in misery

#loneliness #regret #sadness #depression #despair #reflection #nostalgia #emptiness #isolation #grief

Shane 1d

"The Weight of a Ghost"

I fear a ghost has taken hold of me;
I feel its presence when I tend to wake
From eerie dreams that blur reality,
A haunting feeling that I cannot shake.
It steals from me the things I once enjoyed,
And leaves an empty feeling in their place,
As if my life were something to be toyed,
Then left alone and broken in its case.
I'm at the mercy of an angry kid
Who died alone, afraid and far too young.
Too scared to face his fears, he only hid,
And choked upon the words stuck on his tongue.
Shackled to him, I try but can't escape;
To bear the burden of his sins, my fate.

#haunting #melancholy #possession #burden #trauma #despair #isolation #regret #fear #grief

Kiernan Norman 1d

No Cause for Concern

I told the doctor
my heart felt like a flip phone
set to vibrate
in the back pocket of my jeans—
buzzing between spine
and tenth-grade desk,
shaking my bones
like a train no one saw coming—
except me.

I could feel my pulse
gathering its coat, like it had somewhere to be.
He said I was within diagnostic range.
He said I was presenting as stable.

I said I felt like a girl
screaming
inside a library.

They said:
What a beautiful metaphor.
I said:
It’s not a metaphor.
It’s a girl.
She’s in there.
She’s still screaming.

And they nodded,
said I seemed self-aware—
like that settles that.

They wrote “no cause for concern”
in my file.
The room was quiet.
The library was loud.

My heart is still vibrating.
I feel it—
right there, between spine and desk.

No one picks up.

#grief #silence #buzzing #library #hurt #memory #echo #girl #metaphor

Joshua Phelps 1d

impressions are forever

ten years,
too late.

ten years—

and there's
no debate:

i will do
everything

to not be

like you.

i'm no saint,

but i know
when enough
is enough

and to draw
a line,

before it's
too late.

people come
and people go;

and i've come
to terms with
forgiving

and letting
go.

but in the midst of
it all, i hope
to be better

than to
risk it all.

because impressions
are forever,

and

i've learned
to forgive you
and move past it

rather than fall.

some legacies are meant to end. this isn't anger. this is release.

#grief #healing #forgiveness #motherwound #cyclebreaker #trauma #family #tenyears #poetry #freeverse

Cynthia Apr 17

Dear Mirror

I still can’t see myself in the mirror.

I am afraid that when I look at my reflection,
I wouldn’t bear seeing what I’ve become.
My eyes would still carry the same weight they did so many years ago.
Physically growth is evident,
most of my wounds had scarred,
my hair grew a couple inches.

I am most afraid of what I see beyond the surface.
I mean the most minute and insignificant details that shape who I am hidden to be.
I lack the “shine” in my eyes.
The slump in my shoulders from the heavy burden I’ve carried through life.

The mirror is my most intimate friend,
and that scares me even more.
It’s seen my most vulnerable moments.
Moments that my own mind tries to erase through sleepless nights,
yet when I see mirror
it all floods back like a hurricane I wasn’t warned of.

When I look in the mirror I see myself from my perspective,
and I drown in my self hatred.
I have to face myself,
someone I despise so much.
To the point it almost physically aches.

I can’t look at myself because in me I see her,
a girl I once was… I once knew.
Would she have ever forgiven me?
For what I turned out to be.
I want to know how she did it,
I used to think growth brought healing yet honestly I envy her more than I think she’d envy me.
How did she manage to deal with it?
And why did I loose that?
Where did it all go to hell?

“I’m sorry”
Is all I’m able to say.

I look back up at the mirror.
I still hate it,
can’t stand it.
I don’t think I’ll ever come to terms with the person I turned out to be.

#sad #hate #depressing #grief #me #unfiltered

Kiernan Norman 2d

Things Move

I stopped listening to songs
with bridges—
they always begged.

I shrunk my appetite
until it fit inside
your gaze.

Then I shrunk
my gaze.

I killed the part of me
that expected softness.

She died
like a deer:
slow,
staring,
unconvinced
until the end.

I buried all of it
in poems
and told myself
that was healing.

But I check
the dirt
sometimes.

And things
move.

#grief #healing #softness #loss #quietpoetry #writingastherapy #femininepain #emotionalpoetry #selfburial

Kiernan Norman 2d

You Know the One

My stomach does that thing—
you know, when the ghost
rests a hand there.
Not a hit.
Just a hush,
and fingernails.

Like it never left.
Like I’m the one
who forgot to feed it.

It’s always at dawn.
Or mid-laugh.
Or in line at the dollar store—
buying nail polish I’ll chew off by Tuesday
and an eyelash curler,
just in case he sees me
from across a decade.

Then you paraglide in—
a salesman who knew I’d be home.
And the floor remembers
what I worked so hard to forget.

And I gasp—like I tripped.
But I didn’t.
I remembered.

I remembered
the ghost
you left me to raise alone.

Like:
“Hi. Just passing through.
Don’t stress on my behalf.”

I nod.
And I don’t.
I keep chewing the same nail.
My eyelashes are curled.
My stomach still does that thing.

You know the one.

#grief #heartbreak #ghost #softpain #emotionalpoetry #haunted #loveandloss #selfaware #nostalgia