When Barbara Abercrombie’s husband died, she found the language of condolence, no matter how well intended, often unhelpful and sometimes downright irritating. In her grief, she yearned for words that acknowledged the reality of what it felt like to survive a loved one’s death and that could unflinchingly speak to the sorrow and loneliness (and sometimes even guilt and anger) that can show up in the mourning process. When she searched for a book that might help, they were all either too clinical or too flowery. She ultimately created the book that she needed. Finding that ordinary language wouldn’t do, she discovered that it was poetry that cut to the chase.

The Language of Loss: Poetry and Prose for Grieving and Celebrating the Love of Your Life is a collection of reflections on grief from many of the world’s best and most diverse writers and poets from Patti Smith to Rumi, from Joan Didion to Mary Oliver. It is a book that shares both the abject anguish of loss to the glimmers of hope and possibility that can be born of it.   

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