Voices of the Grieving Heart

When Mike Bernhardt's wife died, he turned to writing poetry as a tool of healing. He later solicited the poetry of other people whose loved ones had died, receiving hundreds of submissions from around the world. The result was Voices of the Grieving Heart, first published in 1994. More than just an anthology, it is a companion on the darkest road many of us will ever have to travel: grieving the death of someone we loved.

This new, expanded edition contains over 160 selected poems, essays, and images by 83 contributors who share their journeys through loss, grief, and transformation, including:

• Deaths due to suicide, miscarriage, COVID-19, and other causes
• Reflections on grief, 30 years later, from first-edition contributors
• Prompts and blank pages for readers to add their own poetry