Radicle, or When the World Lived Inside Us: Poems

From the New York Times bestselling author Everything All at Once comes a beautiful poetry collection exploring motherhood, grief, the unending road to healing, and the redeeming power of love.

The word radicle is defined as the root of a plant embryo, the first organ to appear when a seed germinates. It grows downward into the soil, anchoring the seedling, a symbol of growth and grounding.

Steph Catudal is beloved for her poignant meditations on loss, uncertainty, and illness, and the raw, wise reflections of her “brilliant, unflinching, lyrical” (Matt Haig) New York Times bestselling memoir Everything All At Once.

Now, Catudal brings her trademark wisdom and strong lyrical voice to bear in her first collection of verse, delving into the challenging yet often rich parts of life people often lack the courage to face. Radicle, or When the World Lived Inside Us explores universal themes of motherhood, our relationship to the natural world, the nature of suffering, the circular process of healing, and what it means to stay present in the midst of it all.

Loving myself has been like 

watching starlings nest: 

braving the elements for a chance 

to witness some part of me live on, 

gathering twigs and twine for 

the promise of future, to 

reach for my own hand, 

fire and all, and say 

good girl, good girl 

it's time to come home. 

How do we find the strength to begin again?

• Poems on Grief and Loss: Unflinching meditations on illness, memory, and the ghosts that shape us, searching for the light that remains.
• Healing Poetry: A map of the circular journey toward wholeness, exploring how we carry our pain and learn to piece ourselves back together.
• Nature as Metaphor: Finding reflections of our own resilience in the cycles of the natural world—from the aspen grove to the anchoring radicle of a single seed.
• Motherhood and Womanhood: Honest verses on raising daughters in a burning world, the lineage of love and sorrow, and the wild strength of a woman’s body.
• Poems About Self-Love: The difficult, essential process of reaching for your own hand, "fire and all," and learning to finally come home to yourself.

"A collection that will plant a seed and begin to grow through you as you read. A collection you can truly feel." - Brianna Pastor, author of Good Grief

“A searing collection of poems about being a woman in the world today and all that comes with it. Raw, honest, observant and beautiful.”  - Zibby Owens, host of Totally Booked with Zibby

“To sit with words that feel like little threads of gold spun from the straw of darkness we all know is not only a gift, it’s a bit of magic. Once again, Steph finds a way to voice the silent bits of struggle, of solace, of aching, and make us all understand. Effortless, rooted, and vital.” - Tyler Knott Gregson, bestselling author of Chasers of the Light

Alive to nuance and suffering, these poems affirm goodness and rejuvenation. - Rebecca Foster, Shelf Awareness