Grief,
bereavement,
letting go

He was my North, my South
My East and West
My working week
and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight
My talk, my song
I thought that love
would last forever
I was wrong

W.H. Auden

~

Hold on,
hold on to yourself
for this is gonna
hurt like hell.

Sarah McLachlan

~

This is the Hour of Lead—

Emily Dickinson

~

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er wrought heart and bids it break.

—William Shakespeare

~

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes
to let it go.

—Mary Oliver,
In Blackwater Woods

~

Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it. 

—David Foster Wallace

~

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

—Winnie-the-Pooh

~

My joy is like spring,
so warm it makes flowers bloom
all over the earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Thich Nhat Hanh

~

Because the sky is blue,
it makes me cry.

Beatles

~

Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath

Massive Attack

~

To learn how to feel sad
without actually being sad.

Laurie Anderson

~

It's alright to cry.
Crying gets the sad out of you.

Rosey Grier

~

She once was a true love of mine.

Simon & Garfunkel

~

First, we grieve.

—Anonymous

Poem: Moment of Inertia

Just noticing, just feeling grief practice

Anchoring in a positive memory of a lost one

Poem: Allow

Poem: Grief

Poem: [at some point]

Poem: After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

Poem: Digging

Poem: In the Museum of Your Last Day

Poem: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Poem: Adrift

Poem: Sestina

Poem: Bardo

Poem: All the Dead Boys Look Like Me

Poem: Please Call Me By My True Names; listen

Poetry & grief

Poems of sorrow & grieving

Grief poems

It’s OK to never ‘get over’ your grief

In grief, try personal rituals

Grief rituals

Have you considered the benefits of crying?

Grief is for People

The Other Side of Sadness

Stream of tears

The Wild Edge of Sorrow

On the trail of birth and death

What’s your grief?

A practice to navigate grief

Grief support: Hospice East Bay

What happens when we die

What happens when we grieve

The grieving process

Grief myths

Grief fact sheet

Tasks of mourning

Childhood grief: guidelines for caregivers

Goodbye letter

Stages of grief

There are no ‘five stages’ of grief

My stages of grief

In defense of melancholy

Grief is evidence of love

Being with dying

In grief, try personal rituals

The secret life of grief

Five things to know about processing loss

A beginner’s guide to the end

What losing my two children taught me about grief

The paradox of grief

The power of grief-fueled activism

Grief, everywhere

A world where death isn’t the end

The final truth

Calling on Jizo

It’s alright to cry

To fall in love with the world

Heart of a Dog

The Dinner Party

He Loved Him Madly

Welcome to the charnel ground