Shared grief sometimes comes when you aren’t expecting it. I am passionate about poetry because it is a way of observing truth and looking at it from different angles. The psalms are some of the most used scriptures in the Bible. Why? Because we understand what it feels like to have our bones broken. Our hearts often cry out, “Where are you, God?” Poetry is a chance to be honest with our suffering, to speak truth over the pain, and to remember that God is not silent or distant.

Maxine and I met at a writer’s conference. We were strangers, yet grief bonded our hearts as we cried out to Jesus for the things we could not control or understand. You never know how your life will touch another. Share your story. Hope is needed, and your unique testimony may be just what someone else needs to keep turning their page through the darkness of deep sorrow.

your grief, my grief

your tears, my dry eyes

death, near-death, despair

dirt crusted divine hands created

reached out to receive, retrieve His beloved

                                               — Maxine Composto  10/25/23

Bio: Maxine Composto holds a Master’s Degree in Human Relations. She is a Certified Bereavement
Specialist and a retired Executive Assistant. Retirement has given her the freedom to pursue her
lifelong love of learning and passion for writing. She won first place for Flash Fiction in Word
Weavers’ 2024 Tapestry Writing Contest. When she is not writing she is crocheting baby beanies
for a Pregnancy Center in Central Florida.

For more resources on shared grief:

Broken Butterflies is an opportunity
to cry out in your pain like the psalmist.