The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing

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