Olivia Harrison opens “Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George” with a Pablo Neruda epigraph. It closes with the lines: “In the end I've found you / On the blank page in front of me.”

What Harrison seems to have found in this work, being published two decades after the death of her husband, Beatle George Harrison, is a thoughtful, meditative peace. While some of her poems explore the pain and confusion involved in grieving, many more celebrate her 23-year union with a partner who seems the definition of a soulmate.

In his forward to “Came the Lightening,” film director Martin Scorsese dubs Harrison's book a work of “poetic autobiography.” Indeed, Harrison includes a poem about both her childhood and her husband's, recounts the early days of their relationship moving into their Friar Park estate and considers time spent parenting, gardening, visiting with famous friends and being surrounded by music. The poems about coming to terms with being a widow prove just as compelling, looking clear-eyed at loss and building something new on the foundation of what was.

In terms of form, Harrison's longer narrative poems tend to be written in four-line stanzas that often include rhyme, though not always in predictable, consistent patterns. This gives added impact to some tightly rhymed couplets near the close of many poems. For instance, “End of the Line” sweetly uses a musical metaphor to describe her marital relationship being “In the right tempo, a couple false starts / With a chorus repeated by our beating hearts.”

Other poems feel more like true free verse with rhyme only sprinkled in occasionally and line lengths varying more often. Shorter poems like “Without Hummingbirds,” “God Dog” and “Carved in Stone” offer episodic moments over stories. All 20 poems sound melodious when read aloud, Harrison displaying a finely tuned lyrical ear.

In terms of content, Harrison’s poems reinforce the importance of music, nature and spirituality for both George and her. Sometimes her words are playful, such as in “Her or Me” which questions whether she can ever hold a candle to George’s love of guitar playing and songwriting. Her most moving poem, though, may be “Death Is Good For the Garden,” a consideration of how the work planting, pruning and repairing her home’s grounds after George’s death suspends time and offers both figurative and literal healing.

Readers interested in more traditional autobiographical details will find some of those, too. The poem “Heroic Couple” recounts the December 1999 night an attacker entered the Harrison home and stabbed George, taking readers inside Olivia’s emotions and thoughts as she sought to protect her husband and son. “My Arrival” should satisfy those interested in celebrity sightings as Harrison name checks and hints at famed musicians who visited their home, from the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison to Eric Clapton with George’s first wife, Pattie Boyd.

In the final stanza of “My Arrival,” Harrison writes, “Like the tangle of roots that sustain yet are unseen / His legacy surrounds me, in the planting and the singing.” Though clearly her own accomplished person, her explorations of her late husband’s contributions to the world, and impact on her life, make for compelling poetic reflections. Ultimately, “Came the Lightening” proves to be a deeply moving story-in-verse that often finds the universal in the personal.

John Young teaches middle school language arts and plays in the rock band The Optimists.

First Published: July 19, 2022, 10:42 a.m.