Grief is not a problem to solve, but a presence to endure, a quiet companion that reshapes the soul in silence. Though it may arrive uninvited, it teaches us how deeply we have loved and how tenderly we are still learning to let go.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. — Psalm 34:18 (KJV)

I wrote The 7 O’clock News while listening to a story about a woman who was killed by her partner. This case was my first real awareness of such violence on our beautiful island, and it struck me deeply because she was pregnant and had been brutally murdered. The details of the crime are too gruesome to share here. The night I wrote this free verse poem, we had no electricity, so we lit candles. The moon was exactly about a quarter, and I could have smelled the seawater drifting around in the air around us. I wasn’t sure if I wrote it as a lament then, I was pouring out my heart in my blue exercise book. This is not merely a poem; it is a testimony to the way to hold space for the women whose lives are too often reduced to headlines.

That painful reality struck even closer to home when my dear friend (name withheld), aged 28, was found dead in her apartment in June 2010 in the city of Toronto. She was killed by the man who professed to have loved her, “to the moon and back.”

The 7 O’clock News

by jjfaucher

I listened intensely,
my red ink pen scribbling beneath 
the stillness of candlelight.
The silver tip of the quarter moon
got gloomier, while
my thoughts scattered where my heart
could not put them together again.

He battled the great
treacherous seas,
throwing worn-out black nets
into the deep
catching all kinds of fish.

The day the sea withheld herself,
brined in sorrow,
He no longer saw his lover,
Nor the child curled in her womb,
As anything apart from his catch.

Unanswered thoughts clouded my mind,
As I watched the burning candle’s
sides melting slowly,
tiny rivers of wax flowing like lava.
How could he send his beloveds away
in blackness,
in silence.

Tragic, that fragile beings 
have their blood sift into the cold earth.
What I heard was grievous,
a sorrow that settled
like ash in the marrow.

Could this be a stirring
beneath the surface of pure madness,
where silence folds into shadow 
and truth begins to doubt?

I do not know which words are holy, 
or which faces still speak in love.
Frozen with my thoughts,
I envisioned the ocean:
its depth,
its breath, 
its stillness,
the pull of deep meditation.

He should have stayed 
on the shores of the sea,
where the tide speaks gently
and fear has no voice.

But my heart races with a silent,
unspoken tremble,
I longed to understand—
the reasons, 
the questions, 
the answers. 
Each a heartache I couldn’t name.

Could this be the beginning of something 
that will break the silence around the
the storm behind closed doors?
Or will the neighbours keep waving
as though the tide had never 
reach their paths?

I continued to listen,
tears flowing
till the beeping of the old radio
faded in the distance,
still am thinking…
why? 

Sleep

by jjfaucher

Sleep approaches;

A dagger piercing the eyes,

Suddenly.

Sleep comes.

No respect to the brain,

Confounds the memory,

A spasmodic coma;

Sweeping the body.

The mind tells it is time,

His punctuality never fails,

The heart succumbs to his presence.

Ah, real sleep grieves the soul; 

all senses drift, 

slowly slipping away.

LONELINESS
by jjfaucher

Lingering laments lace the hollow room, 
Only the candle knows my name. 
Not even the wind stays long. 
Every silence I turned to prayer, 
Light stretches, but does not speak. 
I listen for voices in the semi-dark, 
No answer, only breath and hope.
Even the stars seem distant now,
Still, I wait beneath their hush.
Surely, I believe I’m not alone.

To the Lonely Me (The unedited version)

by jjfaucher

Only to find how

 Peace has gone

 I have tolled

 The bells of life

 So many

 Undulations

 That one has

 Much to forego

 I have lifted

 My eyes

 Yet have not seen

 The contrivance of our being

 Ended

The night echoes— 

its laughter, 

laughter steeped in sadness,

a haunting melody 

along the way.

Thanks for reading. 😊jjf