Grief Poetry

I recorded this the day after we lost one of our beloved pets. Rainbow Bridge is the theme of several works of poetry written in the 1980s and 1990s that speak of an other-worldly place where pets go upon death, eventually to be reunited with their owners. It brings a lump to my throat, and often a tear to my eye but also comfort as I recall good times with Pongo.

Deeply personal but also expansive in its imaginative scope, Nouns & Verbs brings together 35 years of writing from Campbell McGrath, one of America’s most highly lauded poets. Offering a hint of where he’s headed while charting the territory already explored, McGrath gives us startlingly inventive new poems while surveying his previous work - lyric poems, prose poems, and a searing episodic personal epic, “An Odyssey of Appetite”, exploring America’s limitless material and spiritual hungers.

Ronald E. Hignite demonstrates in "A Time To Live And A Time To Die" his poetic skills and gives greater understanding and meaning to God's seasons for man as revealed by Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Listeners will be inspired by the manner in which Hignite presents the contrasts of the ever-changing seasons of man in poetry and rhyme.

The poems in this collection fly from the microcosm of ripples in a lake to the macrocosm of light bending in a black hole, from math to jazz, from informal to formal, from the here-and-now to the hereafter. This short book contains an infinite universe - one that you will long to return to again and again.

Innermost is a collection of both free-verse and fixed-verse poetry written over a period of half a decade about every emotion felt inside the human heart. These poems will transport you to a whole other world within the innermost depths of the human soul.

When I lost my brother suddenly in September 2018, I felt as though my world had ended. Grief brings so many raw emotions, and trying to move on from a loss like that is truly a powerful and difficult journey. In this collection, I bring you along on that journey with me, opening my soul and sharing all the deep emotions that I felt at each step of the way. These poems are honest, and express how I experienced the stages of grief, and I hope through my words you can find something to connect to.

Wraith Like Me is the journey of a woman from childhood through her mid-30s. These strange poems chronicle her experiences with trauma, abuse, anxiety, and a bottomless rage. The words begin the trails of healing, hope, and self-acceptance (a story that will continue in future poetry collections).

In pursuit of his brother, a man traverses the fantastical and grotesque landscape of Hell, pondering their now fractured relationship.

Quietly reflective, the beautifully written poems in this slim volume offer a welcome respite from the noisy insistence of modern life. The language, now simple and direct, now rich in associations, double-meanings, and imagery, has its own natural rhythm and appeal regardless of subject and rhyme.

This is a book of poetry to encourage people that have been through heartbreak, pain, grief and the ending of a relationship. It's honest, real talk about the feelings we have after experiencing this sort of death after losing someone we have deeply loved.

This poetry collection deals with life, death, love, and the loss of a beloved, albeit complicated, parent.

A collection of Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems that I found to be a comforting distraction during the grieving process. Poems about death, life, existing, and coping.

Stephen C. Pollock's poetry collection Exits explores the beauty and frailty of life, the cycles of nature, and the promise of renewal. Musical and multilayered, the poems in Exits have drawn comparisons to the poetry of Seamus Heaney and the sonnets of William Shakespeare.

With electrifying boldness and fearlessness of vision, Holland-Batt confronts what it means to be mortal in an astonishing and deeply humane portrait of a father’s Parkinson’s Disease, and a daughter forged by grief. Opening and closing with startling elegies set in the charged moments before and after a death, and fearlessly probing the body’s animal endurance, appetites and metamorphoses, The Jaguar is marked by Holland-Batt’s lyric intensity and linguistic mastery, along with a stark new clarity of voice.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to the poem Femicide: When Friendship Meets Brutality today.

In Tired Wonder, Eric Overby offers a personal account of his last two years. 2021-2023 has seen both the continuation of a struggle with infertility and the birth of his daughter. Eric also changes careers and struggles with his new identity and the changes that come along, ultimately leading him to circle back around and return to it.

"Through Grief's Tender Heart" is a heartfelt exploration of grief, offering a compassionate collection of narratives, reflections, and poems that delve into the depths of loss and healing. This book provides a sincere and intimate look at the grieving process, resonating with anyone who has faced the pain of loss. It is a literary embrace that explores the myriad emotions of grief, from the initial shock to the gradual journey toward healing.

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.

I wrote most of these poems when I was in a bad place, a dark state of mind that eased its hold when I wrote them down, and so these poems were created, they maybe disturbing for most and very intense, but if you have been in a dark place too, you may understand.

Our quoted authority is not the people in white coats but those with a quill, a heart and a soul that can take these feelings of love and loss and with the ink of words put to verse feelings and emotions that can be re-lived and shared by all. As they venture through depression, war, slavery to heartache and the loss of loved ones our eyes may mist and tears gently fall at what collectively we have done, have experienced, have witnessed and lost.