Grief and poetry rarely get compared to a box of crayons, but that’s exactly the shape Molly Peacock gives it in her new collection. She built the book around the idea that loss isn’t one colour, and if you’ve ever wondered why grief feels different hour to hour, this gets at why.

That range shows up clearest in one small detail: an apple that sat in her fridge for months after her husband died, one she couldn’t bring herself to throw out. It became a poem, then a small ritual, and eventually a way of saying goodbye without pretending the goodbye was simple.

Molly also talks about what it means to still feel shaped by a marriage that ended, and why writing things down, whether it becomes a book or stays in a private diary, can be one of the only ways to hold onto that shape at all.

Topics: grief and poetry, The Widow’s Crayon Box, widow identity, loss and writing, Molly Peacock

GUEST: Molly Peacock | https://www.facebook.com/mollypeacockauthor/415774-8779 | @‌mollypeacockpoet

Originally aired on2026-07-21