Radicle, or When the World Lived Inside Us

Poems

By: Steph Catudal

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.

Who was I before pain

cracked me open

to all of this beauty,

all this torment?

How do I recall

that we were all once soft and open

and the world lived inside us?

—from Radicle, or When the World Lived Inside Us

©2025 Steph Catudal (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers