The Therapeutic Poet in conversation with Clover Stroud on grief

I wanted to have a conversation about grief with someone whose resilience through their own grief has helped to inspire us to feel more deeply, in all the feelings that grief brings up, and to know that that is ok. I think I have the perfect person! Joining me on The Therapeutic Poet podcast to talk about grief is Clover Stroud. 

Clover’s first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize. Her critically acclaimed second book, My Wild & Sleepless Nights: A Mother's Story was rated one of the 'best books of the year, 2020' by the Observer and the Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

We talk about grief, something that Clover is very familiar with. Her mum was brain damaged in a horse accident when Clover was 16 and her mum died 22 years later. Clover has also lost her dear sister Nell to breast cancer. We look grief in the face in this episode and I hope that it gives you some encouragement to allow yourself to grieve in the way you need to, or to help support someone else who may be grieving right now. Clover is a generous conversationalist and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed speaking to her.

In this episode we spoke about the many faces of grief, not just when someone has died but when there is a physical or psychological absence as in the case of ambiguous loss. We talked about how grief is not linear and can raise up or subside unexpectedly. We also spoke about the grief of motherhood - of the constant letting go that motherhood requires.

In this podcast I want to really normalise grief as one of our human tricky things. 

In 2022 Clover has another book coming out called ‘The Red of my Blood: A Death and Life Story’ about her sister Nell. 

You can buy it here https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-red-of-my-blood/clover-stroud/9780857527738

Reviews of the book so far:

Clover Stroud is a fearless explorer of the human heart, and a writer of incomparable grace and passion. She also understands more about loss, sorrow, grief, and resilience than most people will ever have to learn. She is a gift, and so is her work. - Elizabeth Gilbert.
'A miracle of a book. A hope of a book. An absolute gutting masterpiece of a book so that it transcends book and becomes a record of life, a symphony of love and all the pain that must be endured to hear that kind of glittering gorgeous love. A must read for anyone with a soul. - Lisa Taddeo.

Show notes:

The poem that I recite is called ‘The Unbroken’  by Rashai Réa. You can find out more about them here: https://www.rashani.com/about/rashani-rea-bio.

Clover references Elisabeth Kübler Ross and the stages of dying. You can find out more about that here:

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