KK Riles

10/03/2026

What Do We Keep?

by KK Riles

Was there a summer you tasted the sun in the air?
Did you know you were living.... right then, and there?

Did the grass hum low with a time that was kind,
before clocks learned your name and began to unwind?

Did you bottle the laughter that ran through your days,
or trust it would stay in its golden haze?

When your father’s hand slipped out of your own,
did you feel how the marrow of being had grown?

Have you walked through a town where the silence is loud,
where the missing still gather like grief in a crowd?

Would you burn all your memories just to feel less,
or keep every scar in their summer dress?

If you fled to a planet of rust-coloured skies,
would your sorrow stay Earth, or learn new disguise?

Can you outrun your ghosts in a rocket’s climb,
or do they breathe with you through vacuum and time?

If a carnival came in the black of night,
offering youth in a mirrored light…..

Would you step on the carousel, pay the cost,
to return to a self you once had, now lost?

Would you barter your years for your childhood again,
to laugh in the face of the what and the when?

Did you notice the moment the summer went still,
when joy took your name and bent to your will?

Or were you asleep when the season turned cold,
and the story of living began to grow old?

Tell me, what would you save in a sealed jar,
if you knew how brief all your moments are?

Would you drink from the past when the nights grow long,
just to remember where you belong?

And now that you know that the light will depart,
will you live more soft…
or guard your heart?

06/01/2026

Some stories don’t need fixing.
They only need someone willing to sit and listen.

What would change if your grief didn’t need answers, only space?

If this poem found you today, maybe it’s asking a gentle question of you too 🦋

04/01/2026

Yesterday Was a Heavy Day

Hearing that Poll has passed has shaken me deeply. She was someone who helped me through very dark hours, and I will always be grateful for the care and presence she gave so freely.

I know those closest to her understood she was struggling, and I hold deep respect for the love, awareness, and care that surrounded her. From my own lived experience, I also know that sometimes love can sit faithfully beside pain without being able to take it away. Some journeys can only be witnessed, not fixed.

This loss has reminded me how important it is that we continue to meet mental health with compassion, to listen more closely, to soften our judgments, and to make space for honesty and support. Pain so often lives quietly, and those who carry it deserve kindness, patience, and care.

I’m holding Poll, and all who loved her, with so much care. She will be deeply missed, and the impact she had on the lives around her was far greater than she ever knew.

She is held in love.
May love rest gently with all who loved her.

Written in honour of Poll, and the living garden her sister has created to remember her.

31/12/2025

We never truly know what someone has carried through a year.
We all walk into a new one holding things others can’t see.
A new year feels like a gentle place to begin again.......for all of us.
Here’s to kindness, fresh starts, and 2026.

28/12/2025

A 2026 wish.
Not to escape life… but to return to it.
Moon. Tide. Stars. Stillness.

24/12/2025

The Weight of Christmas

by KK Riles

The trees rise in December light, their branches dressed in gold,
yet every shimmer pulls me toward the memories I still hold.
The carols drift through crowded streets, warm voices soft and clear,
but every verse leans gently on the space where you’re not here.

The world prepares for Christmas Day with noise and eager hands,
while I move through the season like I walk unfamiliar lands.
For while the shops hum with cheer and families gather close,
my quiet ache grows sharper still, the love I feel the most.

The lead-up carries all the weight: the tinsel, bells, the rush,
the decorations blooming loud in every room they touch.
For others joy comes easily, a rhythm they reclaim,
but grief makes every shining thing repeat a sacred name.

And now the day arrives again, the one that asks so much;
I feel both shadow and the light, each aching to be touched.
I do not long for gifts or noise or wonders to appear,
I only long for what was mine… for what is not now here.

Will time reshape this tenderness? Perhaps in quieter ways,
not softening the sorrow, but the edges of the days.
For love like this will not depart; it weaves through every part,
a presence breathing with my breath, the echo of my heart.

So Christmas comes, as Christmas does, in colours brave and bright,
and I sit with the tender truth that breaks and holds me tight.
For even in this heaviness, one thing remains the same,
love lives on inside the ache… alive beneath the pain.

16/12/2025

This poem is a reminder that the real gifts of Christmas aren’t wrapped or bought, they’re the quiet things we carry inside us: kindness, courage, and the little light that helps us through hard days.

If you’re feeling worn or overwhelmed this season, I hope this brings even a small moment of comfort. 🤍

13/12/2025

I needed two quiet days.
December can be heavy.
I’m here again now.

10/12/2025

December chaos is universal, even the North Pole can’t handle it. 🤣🎄
If your home feels wild, loud, or like the Good List needs a full rewrite…trust me, Santa is dealing with the exact same thing.

Hope this brings a smile to your day. 💛

09/12/2025

Santa deserved a little glow-up this year… and honestly, the North Pole wasn’t ready for it. 😅🎅✨
Sharing something light today, because December holds both the heavy and the hilarious, and sometimes a tiny laugh is the best kind of magic.
Hope this one brings you a smile. 💛

08/12/2025

This season is beautiful… and it’s layered.
Some days feel soft. Some feel heavy. Some feel like you’re just trying to survive the noise.

This is my message to you, and maybe to myself too:
You don’t have to sparkle to belong to December.
You only need to breathe, rest, and be gentle with the parts of you that ache.

If this helps even one person feel less alone, then it’s worth everything.

08/12/2025