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Favorite Grief and Loss Poems

These treasured poems have comforted countless hearts through their most painful moments. With words that beautifully capture the depth of loss, these favorites remind you that others understand your journey.

"Heavy"

By Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver’s poem,“Heavy,”recognizes grief as a dizzying experience. The poem starts with a familiar feeling for those …

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"Memory of Grief"

By Laura Kasischke

Laura Kasischke’s poem, “Memory of Grief,” starts off with evocative but almost incomprehensible images. Who knows what …

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“For Grief”

By John O’Donohue

In “For Grief,” Irish poet John O’Donohue explores the disorienting manner in which the landscape shifts and changes aft…

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"Greensickness"

By Laurel Chen

Laurel Chen’s poem, “Greensickness,” is inspired by Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brook’s piece, “To the Young Who Want to Die…

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“Shade”

By N. Scott Momaday

The short poem “Shade,” by Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, offers a glimpse of the manner in which our loved one…

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“Grief”

By Barbara Crooker

In “Grief,” American poet Barbara Crooker elicits the desire to hold onto pain and sorrow, the thread that keeps us tied…

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book cover of maya angelou's complete poetry collection

"When Great Trees Fall"

By Maya Angelou

There is an enormity to death, especially that of a loved one, that we humans can’t exactly comprehend. Maya Angelou ill…

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"First Morning"

By Joy Harjo

In “First Morning,” Poet Laureate Joy Harjo describes what it is like for people to wake up the next morning after losin…

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"I Feel Little Garden’s Pain"

By Forough Farrokhzad

Before her untimely death in a car accident in 1967 at age 32, Forough Farrokhzad became one of Iran’s pre-eminent write…

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"Tornado Warning in Horse Country"

By Emma Hine

Emma Hine’s debut poetry collection, “Stay Safe,” is a dreamy, haunting exploration of love and loss. Her poems wander b…

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“The Body Walks Through Grief Towards God”

By Nome Emeka Patrick

In “The Body Walks Through Grief Towards God,” Nigerian poet Nome Emeka Patrick explores the way grief moves through one…

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"La Junta Luz: Oratorio a Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo"

By Juan Gelman

For the last thirty years of his life, the work of late poet, political analyst and political exile of Argentina’s Dirty…

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"Grief"

By Matthew Dickman

Dickman, whose half-brother died by suicide, is no stranger to personal grief. Their older brother’s intentional overdos…

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"44 [167]"

By Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon in 1888 and died in 1935 still largely unknown, publishing just one book during his l…

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"Talking to Grief"

By Denise Levertov

Does it ever get easier to sit with grief, refusing to push it away? Can we learn to let go a little, to allow emotions …

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"Words Aren't Cheap"

By Tory Dent

“Words Aren’t Cheap” by Tory Dent (1958-2005) is a memorial that knows it cannot be a monument. It is a partial, sketche…

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"Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae"

By Ernest Dowson

Ernest Dowson’s unusually titled poem, “Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae” (“I am not as I was in the reign of…

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"Bereavement"

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley is known as one of the preeminent Romantic English poets of the 19th century. Though he only lived …

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"The Raven"

By Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe published “The Raven” to mixed reviews in January of 1845. He was paid only a modest fee for his work, w…

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"Variation on the Word Sleep"

By Margaret Atwood

In her poem “Variation on the Word Sleep”, well-loved Canadian poet Margaret Atwood (1939-) uses sleep as a metaphor for…

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"Love Dogs"

By Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Thirteenth century Persian poet Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi is widely known for his poems of ecstasy, devotion and praise fo…

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"Septimus"

By Rachel Wetzsteon

So often we are conditioned to think of death as something tragic. And, undoubtedly, losing someone is heartbreaking. It…

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“A Dedication”

By James Merrill

James Merrill’s elegiac poem, “A Dedication” observes grief in its most intimate setting: the mind. Addressed to his fri…

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“New Moon”

By Ted Kooser

Reading Ted Kooser’s poem “New Moon” got me thinking about when I find the moon most beautiful. I have to say, I don’t t…

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“Sorrow’s Uses”

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Last December, I wrote about the necessity of grief when discussing “Sorrow’s Uses,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Today, I’m …

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“Elegy”

By Natasha Trethewey

According to this article in The Atlantic, Natasha Trethewey’s “Elegy” for her father is not actually about death. As th…

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“Funeral Blues”

By W.H. Auden

Though it came out in 1994, I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral for the first time last year. The movie is known for i…

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“After a Death”

By Tomas Transtromer

My search for a poem for this week was very short; as soon as I happened upon “After a Death,” by Swedish poet Tomas Tra…

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