Mourn
By WD, Tha Sensational Poetologist
Strength is born when you mourn
And sorrow leads to success that no one can suppress
Unless it is used wrong and not as a stepping stone
Which is why I don’t seek solace
Instead I acknowledge that no one will respect me
If I don’t use grief correctly
Especially when I am mourning the loss of freedom
Because the mourning process is protracted
When I’m impacted
By grief that can possibly morph into depression
If I don’t teach it a lesson
That will benefit us both
So my oath
To heart is to never let it break
As long as I’m strong and awake when it aches
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WD, this is a really beautiful message. I love how each stanza flows, and I think the language you use is powerful. Grief is a challenging thing to overcome, but understanding that it must be processed and can be used to help one grow stronger is essential. This is such a valuable outlook to have, so hold onto it! You are stronger than the hardships you may face!
To be honest the title of this poem made me not almost read the content. I lost a friendship in an old friend and seeing this poem from a glance made me afraid of reading about something I know I have to come to terms with and address. I’m so glad I read it because you expressed it in a very gentle but direct way. I’m glad you’ve taught me to confront my loss and not to let anything suppress my success in this life.
WD,
WOAH, this is an exceptional piece!!! I wish I could give you many snaps for this in real life, but please accept my virtual snaps, because I am in awe of this piece, wow!!
The stanza: ”Strength is born when you mourn
And sorrow leads to success that no one can suppress Unless it is used wrong and not as a stepping stone” is so, SO GOOD! I had to read it twice!!! Excellent work WD!!! Please continue to share more of your poetry!!
Best,
Samantha
Dear WD
I agree with that we learn and grow after we mourn. Nice poem and rhythm of the poem. I reread this poem multiple times just to feel the rhythm of this poem. Nice job Keep up the work
The first line grabs the reader by suggesting that mourning can make you strong. Then you reinforce that message by saying that sorrow can make you successful. These two statements give momentum to the poem, because they make the reader want to keep reading to learn more. And the rhyming adds to the momentum: not only rhyme at the ends of the lines but also internally. So your structure and rhyme show skills that indeed confirm that you are a “sensational poetologist”!
This poem feels as though it is the first of a suite, where each poem takes the reader further along on your journey to strength and success. One hallmark of a good poem is specificity: using very specific examples to show the reader general movement or characterization. So you might want to think about creating such a suite. The next poem or two could talk about what you mourn, and how you see very particular strength coming from it. For instance, is your strength physical? emotional? Can you give a specific example, such as strong enough to not get angry when you are being insulted? or strong enough to put your anger behind you and greet the day by remembering something good that happened to you? or simply strong enough to run faster or farther than you ever have before, which gives you a sense of accomplishment?
Your life is full of promise and purpose. And your poetry is the same: promising and purposeful. I look forward to reading more of it.
WD,
This is an amazing poem to read and has a meaningful message. “By grief that can possibly morph into depression, If I don’t teach it a lesson”. I appreciate your view and honesty on grief and that you learn from it and don’t let it tear you apart. I get the sense that you want to find joy despite what may happen. It is very empowering to read your perspective. Keep writing!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I have experienced something similar when my friend passed away. You have to mourn yourself because something so impactful on your life literally kills who you used to be.
I love the rhythm of this poem. I can hear it in my mind and the words are passionate and strong. The use of mourning to describe your loss of freedom is so heartbreaking yet beautiful because from what I understand, you are trying to mourn your loss but you aren’t able to get through the grief because that freedom is taken every single day. And finally your promise to yourself, is inspiring. I love the wordplay in the last paragraph. You truly are an amazing writer and I feel so lucky to have gotten a chance to read your poem. Stay strong, I’m rooting for you.
Hi WD,
Your poem inspired me. Resilience is an admirable characteristic in any situation, let alone the circumstances that you face now. No matter how defeated you feel, I want you to know that the mourning that you experience can never be protracted—it is only natural that you mourn the freedom you once had. Resilience is not something that comes easily to me and many others. Most days, I feel like quitting everything: school, friends, life. I find it difficult to turn grief into strength, but people like you make me believe that it can be done. Grief is not depression, grief is only what you can make of it. I encourage you to keep writing like this and realize that you can find strength in everything that you do.
Turning grief into strength is no mere feat. In fact, it is a quality that most people lack. However, from your writing style and your evident perseverance, I can tell that you will be able to live each day stronger than the next. I wish you luck and happiness in everything that you do.
– Soumyaa
Thank you for sharing your grief with us. We see you, we hear you, we respect you. The first step of overcoming grief is to realize what your feeling, and healing follows from there. You know the source of your emotions, so healing and growing stronger for it is the only way left for you. I’m excited for who you will be on the other side of this, even if I don’t know you.
WD, tha sentational poetologist! The language you used to articulate this resilience and commitment to staying strong through inevitable trials is extraordinary. I particularly appreciated how you conveyed that the ‘correct’ way to ‘use’ sorrow is as a stepping stone. So often, negative emotions are avoided and suppressed, leading to fewer moments of happiness. But is clear that you’ve been able to acknowledge that strength is the product of mourning, in particular, the ability to allow ourselves to mourn. Thank you for this wonderful piece. I hope you continue to write, you are extremely talented!
My best,
Audrey
WD-This is such a well written poem! While reading it I felt you processing your feelings and circumstances. I particularly connected with your description of protracted grief. So important to realize it isn’t gate you pass through, rather a journey. Also the phrasing about teaching depression a lesson-really powerful to show the ability to overcome destructive feelings is within you, within all of us. Thank you for writing-keep it up!
WD,
I loved this poem! I completely agree with your message that we can use our negative feelings (grief, anger, loneliness) and turn them into something beautiful! Also, I loved the vocabulary choices you made, for example I love how you describe the mourning process as “protracted”.
– Mona
Dear WD,
This poem is so heartfelt and well written. Grief, anger, and loneliness are such difficult emotions to face on our own. Through your words, it showcases the acknowledgement of those feelings and not to dismiss our emotions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings through this poem.
Thank you for sharing this with us, I love your poem and it really brings out a lot of buried emotion. I especially love the stanza ” Strength is born when you mourn” It is so important to realize losses don’t break you, instead they change you and they make you stronger. I love how you are conveying that grief can be a lesson, that you can take your feelings and experiences and use it teach yourself. Amazing work!
I really loved this poem. The way you are choosing to use your grief as a learning process while honoring the space you need to heal inspires me. I often struggle with resilience, and I can tell that you are truly committed to becoming stronger through grief. I loved the line “sorrow leads to success that no one can suppress” because I thought it really brought home the changes we can make when we learn from grief. Negative emotions can’t just be ignored, and your poem makes me want to improve that in my own life.
WD, this poem speaks volumes about how people should handle grief and this is a great lesson for them that grief can be handled in different ways and some are a lot healthier than others. I hope you stayed on the path to healthy grieving and I hope you, and your grief, learn a lesson through your sorrow.
Hello, thank you for sharing this poem. Your writing really spoke to me and you have a powerful way with your words. I cannot imagine what it is you are going through, but it is always important to be in touch with our emotions in some way. I thought you portrayed grief in its true nature in this piece. I wish you the best.
WD,
Bravo! Wonderful message here. Really appreciated how you turned grief into a partner, not letting it become your enemy, to make you a stronger person. Ultimately grief can either reinforce or destroy you, is what I feel like the message is in this poem. Truly, words of wisdom.
WD,
this is so great and hits on all the important topics of loss, grief, freedom, and the power of our minds. Strength is most definitely “born when we mourn” because (this is very cheesy, I know) but what does not kill us, only makes us stronger. Keep your mind sharp and remember you choose what breaks you. I encourage you to keep writing and producing great poetry.
I agree with your line “strength is born when you mourn” I think it is very important because not everyone knows that. You kept such a good rhythm throughout the poem, an amazing job keep up the good work.
A very powerful message is relayed in your poem. I like it as I can relate to your experience. I do believe that if we learn how to channel our pain in a positive way it can become strength.
” Strength is born when you mourn
And sorrow leads to success that no one can suppress
Unless it is used wrong and not as a stepping stone “
I thought this poem was easy to read and flowed nicely. Everyone grieves differently and copes in various ways that might contrast with others. Accepting grief versus trying to ignore it and hold in feelings only makes us stronger as a person. It is okay to have these strong feelings and it is okay to leave yourself grieve. You can’t hold everything inside forever. With coping, a lot of people find that writing down things with pen and paper helps them express their emotions and I think your poems are aligned in that way. Never stop writing poems and keep up the great work!!
Greetings fellow author, I have only recently begun writing and I can definitely say, this poem truly moved me. Your poem opened my eyes to a point of view I have never experienced. Your word choice was phenomenal such as “Especially when I am mourning the loss of freedom, Because the mourning process is protracted” and “So my oath, to heart is to never let it break.” You use repetition, rhyme, and alliteration in your poem very well such as connecting depression and lesson, protracted and impacted, and break and ache. You also use strong strategic language like “stepping stone” and “suppress” grasping the audience by their vocabulary skills and throwing them into the poem. You conveyed the sorrow and grief you feel in such a personal way that I feel that it spoke directly to me. You strongly write how alone you feel in your situation right now and how you are nearly blamed for feeling the way you do. You are both a very strong writer and a very strong person.
J.O. Minnesota
This poem is extremely powerful. I myself have been through the ringer with the mourning process. Obviously not in the same way, but in a way the where it crushed my world and I stead of crumbling with everything around me, I had to build up the courage to overcome it. My dad, who was my best friend, passed away and boy it was an adjustment. Like you said mourning can make you a lot stronger as a person and it has for me, but on the other side of that mourning can break you. I have seen it break people. I think you have to be strong and you make it put stronger. I’m proud of you and everyone who has to go through this process.
Strength is born and does come when we mourn. And sorrow leads to success that no one can suppress I like this line and no one can take that away from us. That’s cool that you say unless it is used wrong and not as a stepping stone. It’s interesting this is the reason why you don’t seek solace. That’s powerful when you say instead i acknowledge that no one will respect me if I don’t use grief correctly. They see that you’re not sorry then. I love the rhyme because the mourning process is protected when I’m impacted. What do you mean again by I don’t teach it a lesson because by grief that can possibly morph into depression? As long as I’m strong and awake when it aches is an amazing line!
I thought this poem was easy to read and flowed nicely. Really appreciated how you turned grief into a partner, not letting it become your enemy. Thank you for sharing your grief with us, you are heard.
Hi there!
I really resonated with this poem and I want to thank you for sharing it. While I’m lucky enough to say that I haven’t had to mourn the loss of someone through a death yet, I have had to overcome losing people in my life who were once close friends, and I have at points lost myself as a result of dealing with depression and anxiety. I think what resonates with me the most about this poem is that losing oneself and losing those who are close to us, teaches us important lessons and it helps us to learn how to be grateful. It teaches us that we cannot forever stay within the confines of grief, and that if we ever want to overcome adversity and become the best version of ourselves, we have to find the strength and the motivation to move on. We have to find the positive, silver lining, and we have to turn our mourning and our mindsets into something more beneficial. I also believe this poem resonates with me in the way that, when I lost myself due to depression, I didn’t act like myself and I could have lost the respect of others, my family especially, but instead they chose to stand by me and help me find the path back to myself. It’s critical that even in a dark mindset, we remember that others around us will also be affected by our words and our actions, and even if we have a bad day, we should do our best to cope with our emotions in a healthy way. This poem was inspiring to me, and I know that it will be inspiring to others, not just as a lesson to be learned, but as a reminder that growth has taken place. Again, thank you for sharing, and I wish you all the best.
WD,
I find your message here to be a really powerful one. I completely agree that we need to use our grief and anguish as motivators and stepping stones towards a better future. We all have dark parts of our life, but overcoming struggle is what gives meaning to life. You line, “So my oath to my heart is to never let it break” is deeply impactful and inspiring. I enjoyed the flow of your poem and your vocabulary was sophisticated. Thank you for sharing this work of art and I hope to read more from you in the future.
This is a really thoughtful and thought-provoking poem. You provide a very important message and use specific, meaningful words to get your point across. I feel like you brought light to a topic that isn’t talked about enough, letting yourself feel your emotions so that you can maturely get past them. This is important because a lot of times in society when grief hits us we are told to either crumble and lean on others completely for support or to fully push our emotions away. However, the best way to get through grief is how it is described in the poem “So my oath
To heart is to never let it break
As long as I’m strong and awake when it aches.”