Grief Poetry

The women in Allison Adair’s debut collection—luminous and electric from the first line to the last—live in places that have been excavated for gold and precious ores. They understand the nature of being hollowed out, of being “the planet’s stone / core as it tries to carve out one secret place and fails.” And so, as these poems take us from the midst of the Civil War to our current era, they chart fairy tales that are at once unsettling and painfully familiar, never forgetting that cruelty compels us to search for tenderness.

In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love—teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics—couple with moments of wrenching grief—a father’s life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother’s waist; Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.

In Trace Evidence, the urgent follow-up to his award-winning debut Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, Charif Shanahan continues his piercing meditations on the intricacies of mixed-race identity, queer desire, time, mortality, and the legacies of anti-Blackness in the US and abroad. With rich lyricism, power, and tenderness, Trace Evidence centers the racial periphery and excavates the vestiges of our violent colonial past in the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Soul Speaking is a collection of emotional poetry straight from the soul. Every human emotion from love to hate, joy to grief, celebrating newfound friendships to healing from toxic people, is captured in these free verse poems. Whether these words haunt you or heal you, their beauty, depth, and power will certainly never leave you.

Clara Jean Beaman Walker was the third of seven children born to Cora and Clarence Beaman in Knoxville, TN, in 1910. Considered to be “Little Mother” by her siblings, she always gave her best to her birth family and to the family she created with her husband, John Albert Walker. Three sons came from this union: Johnny, Clarence, and Henry. A teacher at heart, Jean saw each child before her and helped them navigate home economics, English, and realizing their potential.

Esta obra es la esencia nostálgica que brota del rincón de mi existencia, las que presento en versos los que quizás muchos ojos leerán y al hacerlo no verán, mas mi voz gritara aunque quizás no se oiga, tal vez porque soy la simple lagrima que comienza a recorrer a ciegas y en la oscuridad los senderos de una faz desconocida. En cada uno de estos poemas me encuentro, porque cada uno formo parte de mi ser en algún momento de mi vida y en algún instante de mi vida fueron mi vida en ese instante.

A Preponderance of Thoughts is an ode to surviving depression. It outlines the author's frantic yet palpable emotions in a fight to stay alive. The poems explore and tackle the many questions asked when one's mind is spiraling into a perfect mess. An allegory of sorts that showcases the many fractured phases of a damaged existence. Outlined is the transition of a defeated soul metamorphosing into an empowered and victorious spirit.

In the early 1990s, eight people living in a small conservative Florida town alleged that Dr. David Acer, their dentist, infected them with HIV. David's gayness, along with his sickly appearance from his own AIDS-related illness, made him the perfect scapegoat and victim of mob mentality. In these early years of the AIDS epidemic, when transmission was little understood, and homophobia rampant, people like David were villainized. Accuser Kimberly Bergalis landed a People magazine cover story, while others went on talk shows and made front page news.

These Hands That Hold The World is a collection that deals with mortality, grief, and other matters of life. Through a mix of poetry and prose, Okoye expresses emotions of love and loss in a simple yet vulnerable way, sharing pieces of a broken heart while whispering to the listener that they are not alone. It is a brave polyphony of darkness and light and hope and heartache written in a language every soul understands.

These are the poems that oozed out of the poet's experience and perception looking at people and the world around him. Most of the poems are on the themes of love, life, and liberty. They cover a decade-long time period in the Himalayan country of Nepal that was affected by the People's War. All poems carry emotions, human sentiments, and remnants of war, poverty, and loss of lives. Brilliant poetry, strong images, and very poetic!

Wenn die erfolgreichen Kämpfe und schmerzhaften Niederlagen des Lebens (im Alter so um die 50 - drei links, drei rechts, drei fallen lassen) auf einander treffen, Scheidungen abgeschlossen wurden, große und kleine Kinder aus frühen oder mittleren Beziehungen ihre eigenen Wege gehen, mehrere Karrieren bereits weggearbeitet worden sind, und es eigentlich nichts mehr zu beweisen gibt, und dann ein ordentlicher Schluck Hormone dazu kommt.

When I was in the fourth grade, we had a map of Vietnam on our kitchen wall. When my mother received an airmail letter, she would walk to the map and move one of the stickpins to a new location to see if one of her brothers was in harm’s way in some new hot spot or battle. I spent a lot of time worrying about that map. I had five uncles in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. This is a book about going off to war, a book about coming back home, and a book about those who are left behind. I dedicate this book to those voices, my family, and every voice calling out at times of war.

Gottfried Benn im Originalton Gottfried Benns lyrisches Werk gehört zum Sprachgewaltigsten, was die deutsche Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts hervorgebracht hat. Diese Auswahl setzt nicht einseitig auf Bekanntes, sondern lädt zu neuen Entdeckungen ein. Der melancholische Klang von Gottfried Benns Stimme und die leise Musikalität seines Vortrags verleihen den Texten eine ganz eigene Intensität.

Dette er Rupi Kaurs anden digtsamling efter debuten mælk og honning, som tog verden med storm og stadig ligger på New York Times bestsellerliste to år efter udgivelsen. solen og hendes blomster handler om sorg, om at føle sig fortabt, om at genfinde styrken, om at ære sine rødder, om kærlighed. Den er delt op i fem kapitler (visne, falde, slå rødder, vokse, blomstre) og er illustreret af Rupi Kaur selv.

This is a collection of poems inspired by love, loss of love, and other tragic and traumatic events that began in late July of 2000—so some poems are about love and others about the loss of that love. This is my autobiography in poetry form.

Outside Gravity - Poems from a Personal Journey by Paul Burnore contains lyrical, crafted poems about loss, grief, and coming to terms with both death and life. These poems are seasoned by an international life and close observation about what really matters. In Outside Gravity, many poems grapple with the loss of a young son and the nearly crippling grief that followed. But this loss is balanced with broader reflections about death, along with a rebalancing of life containing love and the splendor of nature.

The poems of Dear October chronicle the evolution of the natural world and a daughter caring for her mother during the last year of her life. Months of the final year act as the scaffolding for the collection as they reflect on the 12 moons. The spirit of home, family, and mother-daughter relationship intertwine with the diversity of culture and ecology in Northern New Mexico.

We Are the Winter People is the collected works of Jenny Rowbory. The diverse range of poetry deals with love, loss, and the poet's ever-changing relationship with faith. Despite the struggles depicted within the work, it is an ultimately empowering collection, filled with strength, determination, and hope.

Honeybee is a collection of raw, honest, and intimate conversations with oneself that lead you on a journey of reflection. By writing truthfully about the intricacies of her experiences, Rideau’s first collection of work is one that will speak to the very depths of those who read it, inspiring a will to question, heal and empower.

Laurence McKeown almost died in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh/Maze Prison in the North of Ireland, following 70 days on hunger strike in 1981. In later years, he helped facilitate poetry workshops in the prison and co-founded a prisoners magazine. In this, his debut collection of poems, written both during his incarceration and in subsequent years, Laurence reflects upon his developing political consciousness, exploring themes of politics, family, comradeship, longing, desire, and love.