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There is grace, yet

A poem about grace and being present in the midst of suffering and grief.

A resource by Charlotte Nuessle

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“There is grace, yet”


He was hurt when young.

It burned away with his wisdom

And left him more radiant


But there was no reversing

the dementia


She had to speak for him

She had to know what he wanted

Without him having words


She didn’t know how to love the changes,

She learned 

She bumbled 


Her loving was enough

There wasn’t room for perfection 

24/7 years of caregiving


His inability to speak 

Took away conversations

He didn’t have


When he had no words left

Having to say for him,

“Yes, we choose Hospice”


Told she was doing it wrong

That their loving and her loving was wrong


She shuddered, going with him

to the edges of a vast unknown emptiness

The heavens told her

“There is grace, yet.

Shout it out!”


The wretched loneliness, the doubt, the gnawing

Opened a way

It did


It opened a new way

A channel that is clear and strong and true

Connected to all that is


Now and as far as her eyes, 

her heart, her soul can see 

and a way beyond



Charlotte Nuessle, 1/15/26

My Inspiration

I'm deeply inspired by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and William Stafford and others. Each of them - one living and the other deceased - inspires/inspired me to write a poem a day. Poetry gifts my grief with a new perspective.
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