Poems For Bereavement That Speak to Your Soul

Some days you just need to hear comforting words. These poems for bereavement will help you put things in perspective. They’ll help you write a meaningful sympathy card. Maybe you are good at writing grief poems for your loved ones that soothe the heart. I hope one or more of these comfort poems help you or a loved one.

Grief is hard! Comfort your body and soothe your soul in our new  comfort zone

Poems For Bereavement… Beautiful Poems About Grief And Loss

At times during your bereavement, you may find yourself drawn to the written arts or music for solace. There’s something very comforting about the wisdom shared through the ages via poetry or thoughtful quotes about grief and loss. And music touches the soul in a way nothing else can.

Our hope is that you find comfort for yourself by exploring our great collection of poems for bereavement in this section:

Grief poetry can make a very thoughtful gift for a friend who lost a loved one.

I WILL

As long as I can I will look at this world for the both of us.
As long as I can I will sing with the birds,
I will laugh with the flowers,
I will pray to the stars for both of us.

~ Author Unknown

EPITAPH

Found On A Tombstone in Ireland, dated 1889:

“Death leaves a heartache difficult to heal;
Love leaves sweet memories no one can steal.”

ANGEL THOUGHTS

“If you give up when it’s deep winter,
you’ll surely miss the promise of your Spring,
the beauty of your Summer
and the fulfillment of your Fall. Don’t let the pains of one season
overshadow the joys of the rest of the year.
Try not to judge life
by one difficult season;
cherish instead
the exceptional seasons
given you in love.”

~Sec. Cerge Remonde, PMS

DO NOT WEEP

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.

~ Author Unknown

Poems for People Who Mourn

GRIEF

I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,
In souls as countries, lieth silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express
Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death–
Most like a monumental statue set
In everlasting watch and moveless woe
Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet:
If it could weep, it could arise and go.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

REMEMBER

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterward, remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

~ Christina Rossetti

THEN JOY STEPPED IN

Said she, ‘I will not live with grief from morrow unto morrow.
My heart cries out for some relief, ‘Good-bye, my little sorrow.’
She closed the windows of her home and pulled down every blind.
‘I’m going forth, ‘ she cried, ‘to roam. You, Grief, can stay behind.’
‘And I’ll be gone the livelong day, expect me back to-night.’Grief wanly watched her go away into the warmth and light;
With quickened step and brightened eyes, she mingled with the throng.
Instead of pale Grief’s moans and sighs, she heard Endeavour’s song.
She saw a sister, crossed the road, and asked her how she fared:
Then helped to lift her heavy load and in the burden shared.

Throughout the day Self was suppressed whilst Service took its place.
When she returned at night to rest – of Grief there was no trace!
But Joy stepped forth and sweetly said,
‘May I now be your friend instead? ‘

~ Wilhelmina Stitch

Poems for bereavement…

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

You didn’t die
you just changed shape
became invisible
to the naked eye

became this grief

it’s sharpness
more real

then your presence was

before you were separate to me
entire to yourself

now you are
a part of me

you are inside my self

I call you
by your new name

‘Grief…Grief! ‘

although I still call you
‘Love.’

~Dónall Dempsey

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

There’s an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting,
so it is hard to get around it. Yet we squeeze by with,
“How are you?” and, “I’m fine,”
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter.

We talk about the weather;
we talk about work;
we talk about everything else—
except for the elephant in the room.

There’s an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.

It is constantly on our minds.
For, you see, it is a very big elephant.
It has hurt us all, but we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.

Oh, please, say her name.
Oh, please, say “Barbara” again.
Oh, please, let’s talk about
the elephant in the room.

For if we talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life.
Can I say, “Barbara” to you
and not have you look away?

For if I cannot,
then you are leaving me alone
in a room—with an elephant.

~ Terry Kettering

GRIEVE NOT

(Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, 175-186)

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.~ William Wordsworth

Poems for People Who Grieve

PEACE MY HEART

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

TIME DOES NOT BRING RELIEF

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go – so with his memory, they brim.
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, ‘There is no memory of him here!’
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

~ Edna St Vincent Millay (1892 -1950)

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes, we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind?

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

~ Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral

FUNERAL BLUES

I
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let airplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public
doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East, and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

II
O the valley in the summer where I and my John
Besides the deep river would walk on and on
While the flowers at our feet and the birds up above
Argued so sweetly on reciprocal love,
And I leaned on his shoulder; ‘O Johnny, let’s play’:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.

O that Friday near Christmas as I well recall
When we went to the Charity Matinee Ball,
The floor was so smooth and the band was so loud
And Johnny so handsome I felt so proud;
‘Squeeze me tighter, dear Johnny, let’s dance till it’s day’:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.

Shall I ever forget at the Grand Opera?
When music poured out of each wonderful star?
Diamonds and pearls they hung dazzling down
Over each silver and golden silk gown;
‘O John I’m in heaven,’ I whispered to say:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.

O but he was fair as a garden in flower,
As slender and tall as the great Eiffel Tower,
When the waltz throbbed out on the long promenade
O his eyes and his smile they went straight to my heart;
‘O marry me, Johnny, I’ll love and obey’:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.

O last night I dreamed of you, Johnny, my lover,
You’d the sun on one arm and the moon on the other,
The sea was blue and the grass was green,
Every star rattled a round tambourine;
Ten thousand miles deep in a pit there I lay:
But you frowned like thunder and you went away.

~ W. H. Auden

If I had to write a poem

by Mike Bonello (Malta)

If I had to write a poem
I would put pen to my thoughts,
and describe my inner feelings
as I should have but did not

Belying hurt and grief
I braved a face for all to see,
for it’s not fair to those who loved her,
and she loved them endlessly

The heart pains……and bleeds
but the soul rips through and through
till there’s no more tears to cry,
and darkness falls on you

then you will remember
of memories gone by,
you have endured the test of time
and squeeze a smile up in the sky

there was no doubt
we meant to wrinkle with old age,
leafing all those albums
reliving every page

but now she looks at me
and pushes me ahead,
for she wants not for me to falter
but strengthens me instead

if as they say Time Heals
I surely do not want,
I want her to live in me
this feeling of her warmth

when time knocks on my door
and grief will go away,
my heart will stop its beating
and I’ll know that it’s my day

and when this moment so awaited
will surely come to me,
with joy I will embrace you
as our souls will be set free!

Alas a poem needs a poet
and a poet I am not
but I hope these few odd verses
will bring for us some solace

Lest we forgot

Love Poem

by Barbara  (Whitehorse, Yukon Canada)

I saw the moon tonight
Not quite full – not yet
But coming into glory

And I thought of you

You left before the last full moon
And I gazed at it, in a clear cold sky
And wondered where you were

This is not a love poem, as such
I was not forsaken by a lover
Who left me for another
After ravishing me with
All the stuff poems are made of

No, this is not that kind of poem at all
But it is a poem about my mother
My mother, who left me
Who I loved eternally and completely
Who was there for me each and every day
Of my life

And now she is gone
And my heart is broken

(Maybe like the one who was forsaken by a lover)

It hurts the same. It hurts so much. Maybe much more
For life will never be the same

I look to the moon to try to make sense of it
But I can’t

I miss you so much, my mother