🌙 National Poetry Month: Poems for the Ones We Miss

Every April, the world turns its attention to poetry; to the lines that hold what prose cannot, to the metaphors that carry what the heart struggles to say.

National Poetry Month is a celebration of language, yes, but for those who are grieving, it can also be a sanctuary.

Poetry is where grief goes when it needs a place to rest. It is where memory softens into imagery. It is where love finds a way to speak again.

If you are missing someone this month, poetry may be the companion you didn’t know you needed.

🕯️ Why Poetry Speaks to Grief

Grief is not linear. It is not logical. It is not tidy.

Poetry doesn’t ask it to be.

Poetry welcomes the unfinished sentence, the broken line, the breath between thoughts.

It allows us to say:

• I miss you

• I’m not the same

• I don’t know how to carry this

• I remember

• I love you still

without needing to explain or justify.

Poetry is the language of the in‑between — the place where grief lives.

🌿 Poems Become Places of Connection

When someone we love dies, the relationship doesn’t end. It changes form. Poetry becomes a bridge between worlds:

• A way to speak to them

• A way to remember them

• A way to honor what remains

• A way to carry them forward

  
  

A poem can be a conversation. A ritual. A remembrance. A soft place to land.

✍️ Writing Poems for the Ones We Miss

You don’t have to be a poet to write poetry. You only need a feeling and a willingness to let it breathe.

Here are a few gentle prompts to help you begin:

1. Write a poem to the one you miss.

Start with: “If you were here today…”

2. Write a poem about a memory.

Choose a moment that still glows — even if it hurts.

3. Write a poem about the absence.

What does missing them feel like in your body?

4. Write a poem about the love that remains.

What has not changed, even after everything changed?

5. Write a poem for yourself.

A poem of compassion. A poem of survival. A poem of becoming.

Your poem doesn’t need to rhyme. It doesn’t need to be long. It doesn’t need to be “good.”

It only needs to be true.

🌙 A Poem for You

I speak your name into the quiet places where memory still breathes. You are the echo in every tender moment, the warmth in every small light. I carry you not as a weight but as a way of remembering that love does not end when a life does.

🌸 Reading Poems That Hold Grief

If writing feels too tender right now, reading can be its own ritual. Poetry written by others can give language to what feels unsayable.

Look for poems that speak of:

• longing

• memory

• love

• absence

• transformation

• the sacred ordinary

  
  

Let the words wash over you. Let them hold what you cannot yet hold alone.

🕯️ Poetry as Ritual

During National Poetry Month, consider creating a small poetry ritual:

• Light a candle

• Read a poem aloud

• Write a single line in a journal

• Place a photo or object beside your notebook

• Sit with whatever rises

  
  

Ritual doesn’t have to be elaborate. It only needs intention.

🌤️ Your Words Matter

Whether you write a poem, read a poem, or simply breathe through the ache, know this:

Your grief is worthy of language. Your love is worthy of remembrance. Your story is worthy of being told.

Poetry is not a cure for grief — but it is a companion.

A witness.

A lantern in the dark.

And during this month of poems, may you find words that feel like home.