Tag Archives: Poems about Grief

A Poet Picks Up His Late Father’s Dry Cleaning

"Charity" by poet Kevin Young

Poet Kevin Young’s collection “Book of Hours” features poems about the death of his late father interspersed with poems about the birth of his son. The poems are reflections on these seminal events that so dramatically influenced the lens through which … Continue reading

Posted in The Next Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Poems of Mourning,” Edited by Peter Washington

A collection of poems about grief and loss

“Poems of Mourning” is a volume from the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series, which, in turn, is part and parcel of Everyman’s Library, a reprint series that publishes new and beautiful editions of literary classics, mostly from from the western … Continue reading

Posted in Lending Insight | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“A Woman Is Talking to Death” by Judy Grahn

A woman addresses death, and a whole lot more

“we are the fat of the land, and we all have our lists of casualties” Judy Grahn’s ambitious, arresting work, “A Woman Is Talking to Death” is her most celebrated poem, a piece about meaning and futility, callousness and tenderness, … Continue reading

Posted in The Next Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Paul K. Joyce’s musical adaptation of Mary Elizabeth Frye’s “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep.”

A composer sets the popular bereavement poem to music with hauntingly beautiful results

Since 1932, when florist and Baltimore-based homemaker Mary Elizabeth Frye wrote “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep,” quite a few musicians have felt compelled to set the poem to music. Frye’s wise, comforting lines have been transformed into … Continue reading

Posted in Expressive Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

A bird that speaks only one word shreds a man's soul

Edgar Allan Poe published “The Raven” to mixed reviews in January of 1845. He was paid only a modest fee for his work, which did not become famous until well after his death five years later. The cause of Poe’s … Continue reading

Posted in The Next Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Variation on the Word Sleep” by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's "Variation on the Word Sleep" journeys beside and within another's grief

In her poem “Variation on the Word Sleep“, well-loved Canadian poet Margaret Atwood (1939-) uses sleep as a metaphor for the highly personal, often isolating and poorly rehearsed journey of loss and transformation that is generally called grief in the … Continue reading

Posted in The Next Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment