Stevie Edwards

Grounding Exercises

Obsessions imbue the dawn with dread
like shadow puppets telling tales in the glare. 
The sun is coming, the sky a warning red.

It’s best not to give voices to the dead.
I ignore their singing in the open air,
obsessions imbuing the dawn with dread

I wake slowly, slither out of bed,
brush my teeth and comb my hair,
as the sun comes, the sky a warning red.

I shake the fairies out of my head,
sip my coffee, and sit in a hard chair.
Obsessions imbue the dawn I dread.

I try to focus on what the doctor said,
to breathe deep and bear what I can bear:
the sun coming up, the sky a red warning. 

Take my pills and toast a slice of bread,
a steady rhythm, trying not to scare
at obsessions imbuing the dawn with dread.
The sun has come, the sky a warning red.

Stevie Edwards is the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press / Curbstone Books, 2023), Sadness Workshop (chapbook – Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). Her fourth full-length collection, The Weather Inside, was published by University of Arkansas Press in March 2026. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She an Assistant Professor at Clemson University, where she is also the Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Originally a Michigander, She now lives in South Carolina with her spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls. She holds an MFA from Cornell University and PhD from the University of North Texas. Her work has received support from Vermont Studio Center, SAFTA Firefly Farms, Buinho Creative Hub, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference.