When you meet someone in deep grief (Patricia McKernon Runkle)

When you meet someone deep in grief  

 

Slip off your needs 

and set them by the door. 

 

Enter barefoot 

this darkened chapel 

 

hollowed by loss 

hallowed by sorrow 

 

its gray stone walls 

and floor. 

 

You, congregation 

of one 

 

are here to listen 

not to sing. 

 

Kneel in the back pew. 

Make no sound, 

 

let the candles speak. 

--Patricia McKernon Runkle          

           

In November we remember All Souls...     

Image source: https://www.corew.org/news/2020/3/27/prayers-during-troubled-times 

Poem source