Grief hovers within,
moving like a continual presence.
The shape of loss,
a vacuum absorbing all else.

Lost dreams, lost people,
Lost loves, lost hope.

My Beloveds sit with the ashes,
Of what has been taken.
I sit there with you,
In the silence of the soul,
With the embers and the ashes.

I am with you and I love you.

Through the despair and the anguish,
I have never left you.
The shadow you find yourself in,
It is not the darkness you fear.
But my presence shielding you,
Hiding you in the shadow of my wings.

But see here, Beloved,
There is a fragrance after the fire,
The faint scent of the fynbos,
Arising not just after the fire,
But because of the fire.
There is some flora who can only rebirth,
In the furnace of the fire.
From within you,
I am rebirthing new life.
From what is gone,
the ashes you sit with,
I am bringing forth the fynbos.

Trust me, Beloved, to call forth life from your loss.
In time you will see this mountain covered with the life I have regenerated through you.

While you have lost,
You are not lost.

You, Beloved, will rise stronger than before.
Entrust to me the ashes of your broken heart, and see I will do a new thing within you.

I am with you and I love you.

SJP – 2022