Averil Stedeford


The Heavy Stone

My grief was a heavy stone, rough and sharp. Grasping to pick it up my hands were cut. Afraid to let it go I carried it. While I had my grief you were not lost. The rain of my tears smoothed it. The wind of my rage weathered it, making it round and small. The cuts in my hands have healed. Now in my palm it rests, sometimes almost beautiful, sometimes almost you.

Averil Stedeford

Published in The Long Way Down – Poems of Grief and Hope