Branches Book

BRANCHES

Days become weeks and weeks drip down clock faces. It never gets easier,

but somehow this stage isn’t so scary anymore.

Having been here before, I recognize this stage, and I know I know there are many stages, but, for now, my acceptance exceeds them all.

So I say goodbye to my tangled lines until next time.

At least there is still something left to hold on to.

Farewell Response.

Author’s Statement: Khamil Riley

We’ve all felt grief before. Whether it was grief over losing someone we loved or grief over some missed opportunity or another, we all know what it feels like to feel grief when things don’t go exactly as we thought they would. When faced with the challenge of a year-long writing assignment, I knew I wanted to write a series of poems because what better way is there to lay it all out on the line. I chose to write about the grief cycle because I believe it to be one of those things that is much more than meets the eye. I’ve always associated the grief cycle with something people only experienced after going through something hard like losing a loved one. However, I found myself applying the stages of grief to all kinds of different situations. A little while ago, I heard someone say that “everyone’s hard is different.” What’s hard for one person may not be that hard for someone else. This idea coupled with my own interest in the inner workings of the grief process made me want to do some self-exploration and really define the grief cycle for myself. I’ve loved creative writing and have been practicing my writing skills since I was about 9 years old, so being able to work on this poetry cycle felt like the perfect culmination of all of my work thus far. My intention for Responses was to create a piece of writing about grief that was both vague and specific. I wanted my poems to be vague enough for readers to be able to come up with their own theories and ideas about why

170