Grief Poetry

Moving between glimpses of life in relative peacetime and absurdist poems about surviving in a barely liveable occupation, Forest of Noise invites a wide audience into an experience that defies the imagination — even as it is watched live. This is an extraordinary and arrestingly whimsical book, that brings us indelible art in a time of terrible suffering.

Brooks Haxton has been writing for years about the connections between human beings and the creatures we find fascinating. Mister Toebones, his new collection, draws its title from a nickname Haxton gives to a daddy longlegs he sees at his father's grave. In another poem, the poet and his mother, in search of a swimming hole, find a copperhead rearing to strike, about to birth its live young. Elsewhere, waist-deep in the Mississippi River, under the Atlantic Ocean, on the cracked ice of a frozen pond, even in outer space, the poet explores forces that seem past endurance.

With flowing rhymes, intoxicating free verse explorations, and vivid imagery, LIFE AS IT IS & OTHER POEMS will take you on a powerful journey through life and loss, depression and self-acceptance, nature and the universe, and everything in between.

"The Siege of Corinth" is a tragic narrative poem first published in 1816. It was inspired by the Ottoman siege of the Venetian-held Acrocorinth in 1715.

Metamorphosis explores generational trauma, heartbreak, shadow work, and ultimately coming to truth, self-love, and wholeness.

An unbearable loss followed by a devastating divorce. The path to recovery starts here. The suicide of a child is the most terrible thing that can happen to parents. Many parental relationships fall apart due to the crushing weight of such a trauma. In her poignant poetic memoir, Devi Nina Bingham shares her journey following the loss of her daughter. Through Survivor Times Two: A Poetic Memoir of Suicide and Divorce, Bingham offers a candid and soul-cleansing reflection on the post-modern experience of grief. The book reminds the reader that they are carrying a tremendous load—or, in the...

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.

The story of Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills, their journey and their transformation, is “as old as eternity and as new as now.” As individuals, Dedan and Belvie were already activists, mentors, and voices for justice, but in their union, they became an even greater force for compassion and love.

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.

Kaur constantly embraces growth, and in Home Body, she walks listeners through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, and the potential of the self. Home Body is a collection of raw, honest conversations with oneself - reminding listeners to fill up on love, acceptance, community, family, and embrace change. Themes of nature and nurture, light and dark, rest here.

Various poetry, ranging from silly to serious.

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.

"Annabel Lee" tells the story of young love cut short by tragedy. As the speaker (often assumed to be based on Poe himself, whose young wife died shortly before he wrote this poem) discusses his relationship with the now-deceased Annabel Lee, he presents the love between them as pure, eternal, and all-conquering. The love between the speaker and Annabel Lee may have been short-lived, but it remains too powerful to be defeated, even by death. Through describing this intensely idealized love, the poem argues that love is the strongest force on earth.

Today Thomas Gray is remembered almost solely for this melancholy meditation on the inevitability of death and the insignificance of fame. The poem was originally thought to have been inspired by the death of Gray's close friend, Richard West, but modern critics think this to be unlikely. Retiring by nature, Gray did not want the elegy to be published, but his hand was forced by an unscrupulous editor who planned to publish the poem without permission. The polished elegance of the versification has ensured that the poem has retained its appeal over the centuries.

So very rarely is a book of poetry so engaging that it, upon release, immediately becomes essential listening. The emotional rollercoaster that is Damaged, written by Jimmy Broccoli, whips you around on unstable rails, transporting you to a poetic wonderland that challenges the traditional while embracing the unexplored. It’s multicolored, neon graffiti on darkened walls in dimly lit rooms. It’s hesitant confessions gently leaving the lips of the accused. It’s the unexpected invitation to the dance. Damaged is exposed and vulnerable verse that whispers in bold type.

This book is an attempt to create something beautiful from this chaos; to make sense of the things we dare not breathe to life. Focusing on loss, heartbreak, mental health, and the impact of isolation on a tired mind, these poems are the starlings that gather above the water. This book is the hope that we can learn to heal; that the future can survive the past.

Fairies and Fusiliers is a collection of 47 short poems and was dedicated to Graves' former regiment, the Royal Fusiliers.

Tracing the legacy of Margaret Atwood—a writer who has fundamentally shaped the contemporary literary landscapes—Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023 assembles Atwood’s most vital poems in one essential volume. In pieces that are at once brilliant, beautiful, and hyper-imagined, Atwood gives voice to remarkably drawn characters—mythological figures, animals, and everyday people—all of whom have something to say about what it means to live in a world as strange as our own.

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.

I Asked the Wind is a sweeping adventure into our most basic drive for intimacy. If you like raw primal emotions, touching scenes, and joyous celebrations, then you'll adore Valerie Nifora's exploration of the soul.