Poetry & Grief

Poetry & Grief

In 2023, the Poetry Coalition, an alliance of nearly thirty independent poetry organizations across the United States, explored the theme “and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson: Poetry & Grief" in a series of virtual and in-person programs.

The line “and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson” is from Ed Roberson's poem "once the magnolia has blossomed."

Poetry Coalition members aimed to demonstrate how poetry can invite and inspire conversations in their communities about grief—an expansive and rich topic that has become imbued with deeper meaning over the last few years. All organizations and others interested were invited to create programs on this theme in 2023 and to share their efforts using the hashtags #PoetryAndGrief and #PoetryCoalition.

This is the seventh year Poetry Coalition members have come together to offer programming on a shared theme.

Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets, the nation's largest membership-based literary organization, published five micro essays from four renowned poets on a specific poem that helped them better understand or process grief. The essays and their subject poems were featured weekly, in the Academy newsletter, and on Poets.org.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers / National Student Poets Program

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the National Student Poets Program in New York City presented a free digital digest that included recent works by young people to inspire and guide other students and educators to create their own works about loss, death, and grief.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop

In July, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City presented “Mourning & Making: dedications to loving ghosts & the ancestors who became them,” a workshop with poet Kay Ulanday Barrett. This workshop was free to attend and served Black, Indigenous, APIDA, and Latine writers who are also sick, disabled, and immunocompromised. Kay guided the workshop through witness poetry of global majority (BI&POC) writers and map lineages full of tension as well as celebration, loss, and love.

Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice Beach presented Grief Speak: a poetry reading on loss & healing which featured four Southern California Poets: Diana Khoi Nguyen, Cynthia Guardado, Crystal AC Salas, and Nicholas Reiner. Collectively, the authors' work touched on how poetry can inspire conversations about loss and resilience in the midst of tragedy; from losing loved ones due to mental health crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, or the harsh realities of the current political climate and the disruption of natural environments leading to displacement and exile of communities all over the world. Audiences were invited to come and hear poetry that inspires transformation in the multiple phases of grief and what can be done to heal the human spirit through the spoken word. After the readings, a brief Q&A followed with authors and audience members present. The reading was in-person and live-streamed via YouTube.

Beyond Baroque 2023

CantoMundo

CantoMundo, a national organization dedicated to supporting Latinx poets, hosted an online generative poetry workshop conducted by Aracelis Girmay on the theme of Poetry & Grief. The workshop was free and open to fellows from CantoMundo, Cave Canem, and Kundiman.

Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po)

Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) in Milwaukee collaborated with the Overpass Light Brigade to create Poems for a Tattered Planet, a short poetic film. The film, which was shot on location in northern Wisconsin, features the work of In-Na-Poets.

2023 In-Na-Po March Programing

Kundiman

Kundiman, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing generations of writers and readers of Asian American literature, presented a free virtual workshop and hosted their annual Postcard Project. The workshop, “Writing Grief: Somatic Rituals for Revision,” led by poet and acupuncturist Rona Luo, explored somatic exercises as preparation for revising and opening new possibilities for writing. The workshop welcomed both those working through grief and anyone interested in exploring embodied practices for revision. Throughout the month of March, Kundiman Fellows and the community participated in their annual Postcard Project, which involved writing and mailing postcard poems and engaging with the theme of poetry and grief.

Letras Latinas and Woodland Pattern Book Center

Letras Latinas at the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies and Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee partnered to present an online workshop, facilitated by Alexandra Lytton Regalado, author of Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2022). Titled “Living with Loss—In the House of Relinquenda,” the workshop included a discussion of selected readings. Following the discussion, participants were invited to respond to prompts for short writing exercises. Attendees received personalized feedback from the instructor as well as the opportunity to be in community with other writers.

Relinquenda - Letras Latinas

Mass Poetry

After COVID-19’s arrival in the Northeast, Mass Poetry in Boston put out a call for poems of witness, asking poets to pay attention to what was happening in the world during these unprecedented times—the horrible and the beautiful—and to make a record of it: the empty grocery store shelves, the conversations across balconies, the stadiums turned hospitals, midnight beach strolls, the sirens, the sirens, the sirens. Two hundred poets were willing to do exactly that, bearing witness to their loss, their grief, their survival, their hope. Mass Poetry honored these poets and poems by hosting a community event during the Massachusetts Poetry Festival where they presented an installation art piece, an interactive art activity, and held space for collective grieving.

O, Miami

O, Miami hosted “Words in Bloom,” a therapeutic poetry and floral sculpture workshop for individuals personally impacted by gun violence in Miami. This workshop, an activation of their anthology More Than What Happened: The Aftermath of Gun Violence in Miami, edited by Nadege Green, was led by art therapist Deanna Barton, writer Darius Daughtry, and sculptor Amancio Paradela. Participants were guided through writing exercises and the creation of paper flower sculptures, which they used to create lasting memorials for loved ones. The lesson plan from the workshop was then adapted for use with common classroom materials and distributed free to two hundred and fifty Miami-Dade teachers.

Poetry Center at San Francisco State University

On April 8, the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, in collaboration with Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore & Gallery, co-presented "Poetry & Grief," a reading and conversation featuring Kyle Dacuyan and Mirene Arsanios.

The Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation in Chicago presented “Poetry & Grief: Raquel Salas Rivera & Angel Dominguez,” a hybrid event, offered in-person and via livestream, on March 30 from 7:00 p.m. CT to 8:00 p.m. CT.

Raquel Salas Rivera and Angel Dominguez

The Poetry Project

The Poetry Project in New York City was honored to welcome Maureen Owen and Susie Timmons for a reading on May 10. Maureen Owen’s newest book, Let the heart hold down the breakage or the caregiver’s log, begins “She moves as paper moves / her skin upon the air,” and follows the arc of Owen’s experience living with and caring for her mother at the end of her life. Fanny Howe writes of the text, “This magnificent work dwells in the struggle between death and dying.” Owen was joined by Susie Timmons, another great poet of detail, connection, love, and remembering.

Maureen Owen and Susie Timmons

Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America in New York City presented a web feature with contemporary poets writing brief essays on elegies that have impacted their lives and writing. Featured poets included Hanif Abdurraqib, Jos Charles, Brian Teare, and Kerri Webster.

Split This Rock

Split This Rock in Washington, D.C., offered a selection of specially curated poems, published through the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day Series during the month of March.

University of Arizona Poetry Center

The University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson presented "Arrangements: Poetic & Public Rituals of Grief & Joy With Amanda Meeks & TC Tolbert," a workshop and reading that explored grief and some of its other living companions: love, contemplation, silence, beauty, creation, and joy. The workshop, held on April 22, included a variety of arrangements and invitations to make and be made: generative writing prompts, full sensory and playful engagements, reading and reflection, and beginning the guided process of creating ephemeral arrangements and installations across Tucson. Workshop attendees were invited to participate in a community reading and display on May 6.

Urban Word and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program

Urban Word, founder of the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, invited National Youth Poet Laureate finalists to compose and submit poems engaging the theme of Poetry & Grief, and presented them at the National Youth Poet Laureate Commencement on Friday, April 28 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. The event was live streamed nationally at www.youthlaureate.org.

Wick Poetry Center

Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University collaborated with the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University to present four events from February 21–23, featuring renowned poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama, on the theme of Poetry & Grief. Ó Tuama presented two workshops, one on writing “the ordinary” and one on “poetry for troubled times.” He also gave a reading at Kent State University and visited classes with poet Philip Metres at John Carroll University.

In addition to exploring themes of grief and loss, Ó Tuama guided participants in ways poetry can address contemporary dynamics of conflict, polarization, history, and change. Pádraig Ó Tuama is the host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound and the author of (among others) Poetry Unbound; 50 Poems to Open Your Life. He is poet-in-residence for Columbia University’s International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. Ó Tuama brings insight as an artist and a practitioner to this important field of consideration in the world of peacemaking. From 2014–2019 he was the leader of Corrymeela, Ireland’s oldest reconciliation community.

Youth Speaks

On May 12, Youth Speaks in San Francisco presented an Under 21 Open Mic focused on poetry and grief. They made sacred space to come together and process the incredible loss felt over the last few years, as well as exploring ways we can use our voices to help heal ourselves and each other. This event showcased the work of the After School Writing Workshops’ spring cohort, featured artists, and made room for anyone aged twenty-one and under to take the mic and share in response to the theme as well.

Youth Speaks 2023 - Under 21 Open Mic

Zoeglossia

Zoeglossia, a national literary organization seeking to pioneer a new, inclusive space for poets with disabilities, center their fellows’ work, as so many in the disability community have experienced grief and loss during the pandemic. Zoeglossia hosted a series of generative workshops with their fellows featuring prompts inspired by ideas of grief and loss, provided follow-up support for fellows to refine these poems, and created a folio of their work.

Zoeglossia

Inspired by the Poetry Coalition

Tamaas and World Poetry Books hosted a launch party to celebrate the publication of Your Name, Palestine by Olivia Elias, translated into English by Sarah Riggs and Jérémy Victor Robert, and printed as a limited edition chapbook with drawings by Basil King. This event took place on Friday, September 29, 2023, 7 p.m. ET, at The Invisible Dog Art Center. The event featured Mirene Arsanios, co-translators Sarah Riggs and Jérémy Robert, and Olivia Elias herself, as well as musical performances by Jenny Luna and Adam Good.

Your Name, Palestine