Reflection and poetry

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 news story about a pregnant woman who was brutally murdered by her partner. This case was my first real awareness of such violence on our beautiful island, and it struck me deeply. 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 a slender quarter-sliver, and I could smell the seawater drifting through the air around us. I wasn’t sure if I was writing a lament at the time; I was simply pouring my heart out into my blue exercise book. This is not merely a poem; it is a testimony, a way of holding space for women whose lives are too often reduced to tragic headlines.

That painful reality struck even closer to home when my dear friend (name withheld), aged 28, was found dead in her Toronto apartment in June 2010. She was killed by the man who professed to love 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 grew 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
Into blackness, into silence?
Tragic, that fragile beings have their blood sifted
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, I am thinking…
Why? 

Sleep
by jjfaucher

Sleep approaches;
A dagger piercing the eyes,
Suddenly.

Sleep comes.
No respect to the brain,
It confounds the memory—
A spasmodic coma
Sweeping the body.

The mind tells us 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 lingers 
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.

© 2026 JJFaucher


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Thanks for reading. 😊