Grief Abidding Poem by Lonnie Hicks

It was that
Grief seldom had enough of her;
it took more than its due
leaving her often times over-filled with
dried up tears
in too many places.

Grief took her first child
and she weathered this.

Born in the breast of poverty
she endured nonetheless;

Wombed out in the wrong family
a stranger among them born,
she endured
til the road took her out and away
to college realms;
there
pounded by experience to Tragedy
until her heart came to be iron cast;
a thing which drank
bitter dregs
and cold gruel
her daily faire.

But all this
did not wreck her soul
which survived in the deepest depths
and broke with a mighty wave
one day to drown Grief's dingy
leaving her space to land her ship
on better shores-
Anvil forged.

She emerged
appreciative of everything
in this world;
thanking in the end
Grief
for placing the edge
on her
capacity to love,
which then emerged
under-girded
by Soul Force
which overcomes
all things.