The Language of Loss. Barbara Abercrombie
Praise for The Language of Loss
“In these pages, more than a hundred writers who have known what it is to lose someone they deeply love offer language for the meaning of this most powerful life experience. This is not a book you read once and put on a shelf. It’s a precious resource to take out again and again, as life deals its inevitable blows. The Language of Loss looks squarely in the eye of heartbreak and offers what all of us need most: a community of voices reminding us we are not alone, and that it is possible to survive great loss and tell the story.”
— JOYCE MAYNARD, bestselling author of Labor Day and The Best of Us
“With this remarkable anthology, Barbara Abercrombie has given us solace for the soul, a companion to keep close by, for there is never a timeline for grief.”
— JACQUELINE WINSPEAR, New York Times bestselling author of the memoir This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing and the Maisie Dobbs series of historical mysteries
“A deeply moving collection of voices that intimately reveals the universal complexities of loss: how love navigates our absences, how our insurmountable grief becomes a companion, how our mourning becomes resilience.”
— RICHARD BLANCO, 2013 presidential inaugural poet and author of How to Love a Country
“We are mortal creatures who love deeply — never forget it. All great poetry is about this. And here is the anthology that proves it — simply, beautifully, tenderly, lovingly. Everyone should have at least one copy.”
— ERICA JONG, bestselling author of Fear of Flying
“Here is a treasury of words for when there are no words. There is comfort here, and there are tears.”
— ABIGAIL THOMAS, author of A Three Dog Life
The Language of Loss
Also by Barbara Abercrombie
Fiction
Good Riddance
Run for Your Life
Nonfiction
Kicking in the Wall
A Year of Writing Dangerously
Writing Out the Storm
Courage & Craft
Cherished: 21 Writers on Animals They Have Loved & Lost (editor)
Poetry
Traveling Without a Camera
(with Norma Almquist and Jeanne Nichols)
Books for Young People
The Other Side of a Poem
Amanda & Heather & Company
Cat-Man’s Daughter
Michael and the Cats
Charlie Anderson
Bad Dog, Dodger!
The Show-and-Tell Lion
The Language of Loss
Poetry and Prose for Grieving and Celebrating the Love of Your Life
Edited by
Barbara Abercrombie
New World Library
Novato, California
New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949
Copyright © 2020 by Barbara Abercrombie
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, or other—without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Permission acknowledgements can be found beginning on page 181.
Text design by Tona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Abercrombie, Barbara, editor.
Title: The language of loss : poetry and prose for grieving and celebrating the love of your life / edited by Barbara Abercrombie.
Description: Novato, California : New World Library, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “An anthology of noted poems and prose, both recent and classic, that deal with the themes of loss and grieving.”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020030377 (print) | LCCN 2020030378 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608686957 (paperback) | ISBN 9781608686964 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Loss (Psychology)--Literary collections. | Grief--Literary collections.
Classification: LCC PN6071.L69 L36 2020 (print) | LCC PN6071.L69 (ebook) | DDC 808.81/93548--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030377
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030378
First printing, November 2020
ISBN 978-1-60868-695-7
Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-696-4
Printed in the USA on 30% postconsumer-waste recycled paper
New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher. Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative.
10987654321
In memory of
Robert V. Adams, 1932–2015
When Tibor died, the world came to an end. And the world did not come to an end. That is something you learn.
—MAIRA KALMAN
Contents
The Bustle in a House