The art of losing : poems of grief and healing

Poetry serves a unique role in our lives, distilling human experience and emotion down to truths as potent as they are brief. There are two times most people turn to it: for love and loss. Although collections of love poetry abound, there are very few anthologies for the grieving. In The Art of Losing, editor Kevin Young Kevin Young has introduced and selected 150 devastatingly beautiful poems that embrace the pain and heartbreak of mourning. Divided into five sections (Reckoning, Remembrance, Rituals, Recovery, and Redemption), with poems by some of our most beloved poets as well as the best of the current generation of poets, The Art of Losing is the ideal a gift for a loved one in a time of need and for use by ministers, rabbis, and palliative care workers who tend to those who are experiencing loss. Among the poets included: Elizabeth Alexander, W.H. Auden, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Kenneth Koch, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marianne Moore, Sharon Olds Mary Oliver, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott, and James Wright. Front Cover......Page 1 Front Flap......Page 2 Half-Title......Page 5 Other books by author......Page 6 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Dedication......Page 9 Contents......Page 11 Introduction......Page 19 I. Reckoning (Between grief and nothing, I will take grief.)......Page 29 W. H. Auden — Musée des Beaux Arts......Page 31 Robert Pinsky — Dying......Page 32 Rita Dove — The Wake......Page 34 Emily Dickinson — "After great pain, a formal feeling comes—"......Page 35 Untitled......Page 36 Brenda Hillman — Secret Knowledge......Page 37 Brenda Hillman — Much Hurrying......Page 38 Sharon Olds — The Race......Page 39 Terrance Hayes — The Whale......Page 41 D. H. Lawrence — Silence......Page 43 Wilfred Owen — Futility......Page 44 Anne Sexton — Lament......Page 45 Stevie Smith — Not Waving But Drowning......Page 46 Dylan Thomas — Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night......Page 47 Lucie Brock-Broido — Pyrrhic Victory......Page 48 Philip Larkin — The Mower......Page 49 Mary Jo Bang — No More......Page 50 Ruth Stone — Loss......Page 52 Brenda Shaughnessy — Ever......Page 53 Nick Flynn — Sudden......Page 54 Ted Hughes — Do Not Pick Up the Telephone......Page 55 W. H. Auden — Funeral Blues......Page 57 Natasha Trethewey — Graveyard Blues......Page 58 Donald Hall — Without......Page 59 Jean Valentine — For a Woman Dead at Thirty......Page 61 Adrienne Rich — Final Notations......Page 62 Albert Goldbarth — One Continuous Substance......Page 63 Jane Cooper — Iron......Page 64 Kevin Young — Bereavement......Page 65 Li-Young Lee — This Hosue and What Is Dead......Page 68 Gerard Manley Hopkins — [Carrion Comfort]......Page 70 Forrest Hamer — from Choir Practice......Page 71 John Berryman — To Bhain Campbell......Page 72 John Berryman — Epilogue......Page 73 Derek Walcott — Sea Canes......Page 74 Elizabeth Alexander — Autumn Passage......Page 75 Jane Kenyon — Let Evening Come......Page 77 II. Regret (I believe, but what is belief?)......Page 79 Robert Frost — Nothing Gold Can Stay......Page 81 Joel Brouwer — The Spots......Page 82 Frank Bidart — Like......Page 84 Anne Stevenson — Dreaming of the Dead......Page 85 Stephen Dobyns — Grief......Page 87 Teodore Roethke — Elegy for Jane......Page 88 Donald Justice — On the Death of Friends in Childhood......Page 89 Simon Armitage — The Shout......Page 90 Michael S. Harper — We Assume: On the Death of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper......Page 91 David Wojahn — Writen on the Due Date of a Son Never Born......Page 93 Laure-Anne Bosselaar — Stillbirth......Page 94 Seamus Heaney — Mid-Term Break......Page 95 Gregory Orr — A Litany......Page 96 Marie Howe — How Some of It Happened......Page 97 Galway Kinnell — Freedom, New Hampshire......Page 99 Mary Oliver — Ice......Page 104 Les Murray — The Last Hellos......Page 106 Lucille Clifton — "oh antic God"......Page 110 Ruth Stone — Speaking to My Dead Mother......Page 111 Thom Gunn — The Reassurance......Page 112 Jon Pineda — My Sister, Who Died Young, Takes Up the Task......Page 113 Mark Strand — Elegy for My Father......Page 114 William Matthews — Men at My Father's Funeral......Page 121 Stephen Dunn — On the Death of a Colleague......Page 122 Jeff Fallis — Marquee Moon......Page 124 Jim Daniels — The Facts of Grief......Page 127 Denise Duhamel — David Lemieux......Page 129 Edna St. Vincent Millay — Dirge Without Music......Page 131 III. Remembrance (What did I know, what did I know...)......Page 133 Elizabeth Alexander — After......Page 135 Owen Dodson — Poems for My Brother Kenneth......Page 137 Claudia Emerson — Artifact......Page 142 Hal Sirowitz — Remember Me......Page 143 Joy Harjo — Death Is a Woman......Page 144 Mark Doty — Tiara......Page 146 William Stafford — A Memorial: Son Bret......Page 148 Carolyn Forché — The Morning Baking......Page 149 Calvin Forbes — Hand Me Down Blues......Page 150 C. K. Williams — Grief......Page 151 Natasha Trethewey — Myth......Page 155 Etheridge Knight — The Bones of My Father......Page 156 Joseph Brodsky — A Song......Page 158 Robert Hayden — Those Winter Sundays......Page 160 Beth Ann Fennelly — Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Recalls Wrigley Field......Page 161 Lucille Clifton — forgiving my father......Page 162 Dean Young — White Crane......Page 163 Arnold J. Kemp — Elegy......Page 165 D. A. Powell — cosmos, late blooming......Page 167 Afaa Michael Weaver — Biku......Page 168 James Tate — The Lost Pilot......Page 169 Dylan Thomas — A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London......Page 171 Coleman Barks — Luke and the Duct Tape......Page 172 Erin Murphy — Birthday Poem......Page 176 Cornelius Eady — You Don't Miss Your Water......Page 178 Billy Collins — The Dead......Page 179 IV. Ritual (Tomorrow, the bowl I have yet to fill.)......Page 181 Philip Larkin — Water......Page 183 Anne Carson — My Religion......Page 184 Anne Sexton — The Truth the Dead Know......Page 186 James Weldon Johnson — Listen Lord: A Prayer......Page 187 William Carolos Williams — Dedication for a Plot of Ground......Page 189 Yusef Komunyakaa — Facing It......Page 191 Seamus Heaney — Funeral Rites......Page 193 Tori Derricotte — Not Forgotten......Page 197 Natasha Trethewey — After Your Death......Page 198 W. D. Snodgrass — Disposal......Page 199 Deborah Digges — Seersucker Suit......Page 200 Reginald Shepherd — Until She Returns......Page 201 Quan Barry — the oboe in Handel's largo from Xerxes as elegy......Page 203 A. R. Ammons — Transaction......Page 205 William Matthews — My Father's Body......Page 206 Jean Valentine — My Mother's Body, My Professor, My Bower......Page 208 Mary Jo Salter — Dead Letters......Page 209 Grace Paley — "I needed to talk to my sister"......Page 216 Thomas Sayers Ellis — Fatal April......Page 217 Louise Glück — Celestial Music......Page 219 Michael Ryan — God......Page 221 James Wright — Trying to Pray......Page 222 Robert Hayden — Ice Storm......Page 223 Tony Hoagland — Wasteful Gesture Only Not......Page 224 Terrance Hayes — Blues Procession......Page 226 Cornelius Eady — I Just Wanna Testify......Page 227 Matthew Rohrer — Incensation at the Funeral......Page 228 Karl Shapiro — My Father's Funeral......Page 229 Edward Hirsch — Cold Calls......Page 232 Kevin Young — Burial [No Woman No Cry]......Page 233 Ted Kooser — Mourners......Page 236 Louise Glück — Lament......Page 237 Lawrence Raab — Request......Page 238 Meghan O'Rourke — Elegy......Page 240 Franz Wright — Translation......Page 241 Campbell McGrath — Storm Valediction......Page 242 Elizabeth Bishop — One Art......Page 243 Galway Kinnell — Prayer......Page 244 V. Recovery (I Lear by going where I have to go.)......Page 245 My Heart — Frank O'Hara......Page 247 Simon Armitage — Poem......Page 248 Jane Mayhall — The Gilded Shadow......Page 249 Deborah Garrison — On New Terms......Page 250 W. S. Merwin — For the Anniversary of My Death......Page 251 Ann Lauterbach — Hum......Page 252 Adam Zagajewski — Try to Praise the Mutilated World......Page 255 Matthew Dickman — Grief......Page 256 Li-Young Lee — My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud......Page 258 Phillis Levin — Vigil......Page 260 Ellen Bryant Voigt — Practice......Page 261 C. D. Wright — Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof......Page 262 John Ashbery — Light Turnouts......Page 263 Denise Levertov — Living Alone (II)......Page 264 Mark Doty — Beach Roses......Page 265 Kim Addonizio — Death Poem......Page 266 Gwendolyn Brooks — Infirm......Page 267 Paul Muldoon — It Is What It Is......Page 268 David Lehman — 12/19/02......Page 269 Donald Hall — Weeds and Peonies......Page 270 Richard Wilbur — The Lilacs......Page 271 Ted Kooser — Father......Page 273 David Young — After My Death......Page 274 Gerald Stern — Lucky Life......Page 276 Galway Kinnell — Wait......Page 278 Mary Oliver — Wild Geese......Page 279 Theodore Roethke — The Waking......Page 280 VI. Redemption (What will survive of us is love.)......Page 281 Philip Larkin — The Trees......Page 283 Larry Levis — In the City of Light......Page 284 Dylan Thomas — And Death Shall Have No Dominion......Page 286 Marianne Moore — What Are Years?......Page 287 Anne Sexton — First Psalm......Page 288 Charles Simic — Evening......Page 290 Rumi — The Grasses......Page 291 Keving Young — Redemption Song......Page 293 Hayden Carruth — from The Clay Hill Anthology......Page 295 Mary Oliver — When Death Comes......Page 297 e. e. cummings — "i thank You God for most this amazing"......Page 299 Phillis Levin — Unsolicited Survey......Page 300 Czeslaw Milosz — And Yet the Books......Page 303 James Merrill — Last Words......Page 304 Jack Gilbert — Music Is in the Piano Only When It Is Played......Page 305 Jason Shinder — Coda......Page 306 Aracelis Girmay — Litany......Page 307 Jane Kenyon — Notes from the Other Side......Page 309 Charles Wright — Self-Portrait......Page 310 Anne Stevenson — The Mother......Page 311 Franz Wright — Did This Ever Happen to You......Page 312 Philip Larkin — An Arundel Tomb......Page 313 Donald Justice — Poem for a Survivor......Page 315 Ruth L. Schwartz — Letter from God......Page 316 Jane Kenyon — Otherwise......Page 318 Kenneth Koch — To Breath......Page 319 Ruth Stone — Train Ride......Page 320 Acknowledgments......Page 321 For a Funeral Service......Page 334 Mothers......Page 335 Fathers......Page 336 Siblings......Page 337 Friends and Strangers......Page 338 A Note on the Editor......Page 340 Back Flap......Page 343 Back Cover......Page 344 Poems About The Various Stages Of Grief, With 150 Selections From A Variety Of 20th-21st Century Poets. Reckoning. Musée Des Beaux Arts / W.h. Auden ; Dying / Robert Pinsky ; The Wake / Rita Dove ; After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes-- ; 'my Life Closed Twice Before Its Close-- / Emily Dickinson ; Secret Knowledge ; Much Hurrying / Brenda Hillman ; The Race / Sharon Olds ; The Whale / Terence Hayes ; Silence / D.h. Lawrence ; Futility / Wilfred Owen ; Lament / Anne Sexon ; Not Waving But Drowning / Stevie Smith ; Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night / Dylan Thomas ; Pyrrhic Victory / Lucie Brock-broido ; The Mower / Philip Larkin ; No More / Mary Jo Bang ; Loss / Ruth Stone ; Sudden / Nick Flynn ; Do Not Pick Up The Telephone / Ted Hughes ; Funeral Blues / W.h. Auden ; Graveyard Blues / Natasha Trethewey ; Without / Donald Hall ; For A Woman Dead At Thirty / Jean Valentine ; Final Notations / Adrienne Rich ; One Continuous Substance / Albert Goldbarth ; Iron / Jane Cooper ; Bereavement / Kevin Young ; This Hour And What Is Dead / Li-young Lee ; (carrion Comfort) / Gerard Manley Hopkins ; From Choir Practice / Forrest Hamer ; To Bhain Campbell ; Epilogue / John Berryman ; Sea Canes / Derek Walcott ; Autumn Passage / Elizabeth Alexander ; Let Evening Come / Jane Kenyon -- Regret. Nothing Gold Can Stay / Robert Frost ; The Spots / Joel Brouwer ; Like / Frank Bidart ; Dreaming Of The Dead / Anne Stevenson ; Grief / Stephen Dobyns ; Elegy For Jane / Theodore Roethke ; On The Death Of Fiends In Childhood / Donald Justice ; The Shout / Simon Armitage ; We Assume : On The Death Of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper / Michael S. Harper ; Written On The Due Date Of A Son Never Born / David Wojahn ; Stillbirth / Laure-anne Bosselaar ; Mid-term Break / Seamus Heaney ; A Litany / Gregory Orr ; How Some Of It Happened / Marie Howe ; Freedom, New Hampshire / Galway Kinnell ; Ice / Mary Oliver ; The Last Hellos / Les Murray ; Oh Antic God / Lucille Clifton ; Speaking To My Dead Mother / Ruth Stone ; The Reassurance / Thom Gunn ; My Sister, Who Died Young, Takes Up The Task / Jon Pineda ; Elegy For My Father / Mark Strand ; Men At My Father's Funeral / William Matthews ; On The Death Of A Colleague / Stephen Dunn ; Marquee Moon / Jeff Fallis ; The Facts Of Grief / Jim Daniels ; David Lemieux / Denise Duhamel ; Dirge Without Music / Edna St. Vincent Millay -- Remembrance. After / Elizabeth Alexander ; Poems For My Brother Kenneth / Owen Dodson ; Artifact / Caludia Emerson ; Remember Me / Hal Sirowitz ; Death Is A Woman / Joy Harjo ; Tiara / Mark Doty ; A Memorial : Son Bret / William Stafford ; The Morning Baking / Carolyn Forché ; Hand Me Down Blues / Calvin Forbes ; Grief / C.k. Williams ; Myth / Natasha Trethewey ; The Bones Of My Father / Etheridge Knight ; A Song / Joseph Brodsky ; Those Winter Sundays / Robert Hayden ; Asked For A Happy Memory Of Her Father, She Recalls Wrigley Field / Beth Ann Fennelly ; Forgiving My Father / Lucille Clifton ; White Crane / Dean Young ; Elegy / Arnold J. Kemp ; Cosmos, Late Blooming / D.a. Powell ; Abiku / Afaa Michael Weaver ; A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London / Dylan Thomas ; Luke And The Duct Tape / Coleman Barks ; Birthday Poem / Erin Murphy ; You Don't Miss Your Water / Cornelius Eady ; The Dead / Billy Collins -- Ritual. Water / Philip Larkin ; My Religion / Anne Carson ; The Truth The Dead Know / Anne Sexton ; Listen Lord : A Prayer / James Weldon Johnson ; Dedication For A Plot Of Ground / William Carlos Williams ; Facing It / Yusef Komunyakaa ; Funeral Rites / Seamus Heaney ; Not Forgotten / Toi Derricotte ; After Your Death / Natasha Trethewey ; Disposal / W.d. Snodgrass ; Seersucker Suit / Deborah Digges ; Until She Returns / Reginald Shepherd ; The Oboe In Handel's Largo From Xerxes As Elegy / Quan Barry ; Transaction / A.r. Ammons ; My Father's Body / William Matthews ; My Mother's Body, My Professor, My Bower / Jean Valentine ; Dead Letters / Mary Joe Salter ; I Needed To Talk To My Sister / Grace Paley ; Fatal April / Thomas Sayers Ellis ; Celestial Music / Louise Glück ; God / Michael Ryan ; Trying To Pray / James Wright ; Ice Storm / Robert Hayden ; Wasteful Gesture Only Not / Tony Hoagland ; Blues Procession / Terrance Hayes ; I Just Wanna Testify / Cornelius Eady ; Incensation At The Funeral / Matthew Rohrer ; My Father's Funeral / Karl Shapiro ; Cold Calls / Edward Hirsch ; Burial (no Woman No Cry) / Kevin Young ; Mourners / Ted Kooser ; Lament / Louise Glück ; Request / Lawrence Raab ; Elegy / Meghan O'rourke ; Translation / Franz Wright ; Storm Valediction / Campbell Mcgrath ; One Art / Elizabeth Bishop ; Prayer / Galway Kinell -- Recovery. My Heart / Frank O'hara ; Poem / Simon Armitage ; The Gilded Shadow / Jane Mayhall ; On New Terms / Deborah Garrison ; For The Anniversary Of My Death / W.s. Merwin ; Hum / Ann Lauterbach ; Try To Praise The Mutilated Word / Adam Zagajewski (translated By Clare Cavanagh) ; Grief / Matthew Dickman ; My Father, In Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud / Li-young Lee ; Vigil / Phillis Levin ; Practice / Ellen Bryant Voigt ; Re : Happiness, In Pursuit Thereof / C.d. Wright ; Light Turnouts / John Ashbery ; Living Alone (ii) / Denise Levertov ; Beach Roses / Mark Doty ; Death Poem / Kim Addonizio ; Infirm / Gwendolyn Brooks ; It Is What It Is / Paul Muldoon ; 12/19/02 / David Lehman ; Weeds And Peonies / Donald Hall ; The Lilacs / Richard Wilbur ; Father / Ted Kooser ; After My Death / David Young ; Lucky Life / Gerald Stern ; Wild Geese / Mary Oliver ; The Waking / Theodore Roetheke -- Redemption. The Trees / Philip Larkin ; In The City Of Light / Larry Levis ; And Death Shall Have No Dominion / Dylan Thomas ; What Are Years? / Marianne Moore ; First Psalm / Anne Sexton ; Evening / Charles Simic ; The Grasses / Rumi (translated By Coleman Barks) ; Redemption Song / Kevin Young ; From The Clay Hill Anthology / Hayden Carruth ; When Death Comes / Mary Oliver ; I Thank You God For Most This Amazing / E.e. Cummings ; Unsolicited Survey / Phillis Levin ; And Yet The Books / Czeslaw Milosz (translated By Czeslaw Milosz And Robert Hass) ; Last Words / James Merrill ; Music Is In The Piano Only When It Is Played / Jack Gilbert ; Coda / Jason Shinder ; Litany / Aracelis Girmay ; Notes From The Other Side / Jane Kenyon ; Self-portrait / Charles Wright ; The Mother / Anne Stevenson ; Did This Ever Happen To You / Franz Wright ; An Arundel Tomb / Philip Larkin ; Poem For A Survivor / Donald Justice ; Letter From God / Ruth L. Schwartz ; Otherwise / Jane Kenyon ; To Breath / Kenneth Koch ; Train Ride / Ruth Stone. Edited By Kevin Young. Includes Index. Poetry serves a unique role in our lives, distilling human experience and emotion down to truths as potent as they are brief. There are two times most people turn to for love and loss. The Art of Losing will be the first anthology of its kind, delivering poetry with a purpose. Editor Kevin Young has introduced and selected 150 devastatingly beautiful poems that embrace the pain and heartbreak of mourning. Divided into five sections (Reckoning, Remembrance, Rituals, Recovery, and Redemption), with poems by some of our most beloved poets as well as the best of the current generation of poets, The Art of Losing is the ideal a gift for a loved one in a time of need and for use by ministers, rabbis, and palliative care workers who tend to those who are experiencing loss. Among the poets Elizabeth Alexander, W.H. Auden, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Kenneth Koch, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marianne Moore, Sharon Olds Mary Oliver, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott, and James Wright. The Art of Losing is the first anthology of its kind, delivering poetry with a purpose. Editor Kevin Young has introduced and selected 150 devastatingly beautiful poems that embrace the pain and heartbreak of mourning. Divided into five sections (Reckoning, Remembrance, Rituals, Recovery, and Redemption), with poems by some of our most beloved poets as well as the best of the current generation of poets, The Art of Losing is the ideal gift for a loved one in a time of need and for use by therapists, ministers, rabbis, and palliative care workers who tend to those who are experiencing loss. Among the poets included: Elizabeth Alexander, W. H. Auden, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Kenneth Koch, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marianne Moore, Sharon Olds, Mary Oliver, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott, and James Wright.-- Amazon.com This ... anthology [gathers] poems about suffering and overcoming loss. Organized around subjects such as Regret, Remembrance, and Ritual, this book includes poets both canonical and contemporary, with perhaps a refreshingly larger helping of the latter: poets like Marianne More, Philip Larkin, and Elizabeth Bishop join newer names like D.A. Powell, Matthew Dickman, and Meghan O'Rourke; there are also plenty of reigning masters, like Louise Glück. Death is nature's way/ of telling you to be quiet, writes Franz Wright, somewhat harshly. --Publishers Weekly