Novena to Loss and Other Love Poems - Paperback

In Novena to Loss and Other Love Poems, we see just how vastly, how deeply, the shadow of loss permeates every part of our lives. Kathleen O'Brien touches the truth of heartache with great courage and precision. These are clear-eyed poems about the muddle of grief, a stunning honoring of a life well lived and the gaping absence that remains.

-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of The Unfolding

One of grief 's most insidious tricks is to make us turn inward, to go silent. Perhaps this is why, as Kathleen O'Brien reminds us, grief counselors recommend writing to the person we've lost. Novena to Loss and Other Love Poems does something even more difficult, even more vulnerable: it writes to the living, those of us who are left, those of us who must summon from each other the grace to remember the love we've had. In a life "burned to the ground" by her husband's death, O'Brien turns to voices ranging from Jane Hirshfield to Jon Baptiste to a God she only sometimes believes in This book now joins their company, offering poems steeped in the details of life and loss-from a to-do list that includes "cancel our trip to Hawaii" to the recollection that "a fight is how we ended up / having our best life, you accepting / my apology over the pay phone." Ultimately, these poems remind us what life is: "It was the music we make when we breathe."

-Ryler Dustin, author of Trailer Park Psalms

Grief poems are love poems and in this tender collection by Kathleen O'Brien about the sudden death of her husband, the poet shows us the depth of grief from a place of great love. "I wonder if out here in space / I can touch his voice// or if it is swallowed by night." O'Brien does here what poets do: she brings her lover back to life in these poems as she tells us the story of their life together. "But he is alive, alive, alive. / In spirit." Yes, indeed, and amen.

-Michele Bombardier, author of Don't Ask Me How I Know and Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate 2023-2025

In her beautiful collection of poetry, Novena to Loss and Other Love Poems, Kathleen O'Brien becomes the storyteller of the heartbreaking loss of her husband John. We, the readers, are welcomed into her story, her world of sorrow and, later, finding her way, if not yet into healing, then into forgiveness and mercy-where we witness both the seemingly ordinary, mundane moments of great loss as well as the holiest and most sacred. It is an honor to walk the path alongside her. Day by day. The story unfolding poem by tender poem. Just so, John Crow. Just so.

-Denise Carrico, Interfaith Chaplain, Bereavement Counselor

The esteemed creative nonfiction writer Philip Gerard said that when we write about loss, in order to make it more than just nostalgic and wistful-something only the writer can feel-the writer needs to show us what was lost when the person we're writing about is gone. That is exactly what Kathleen O'Brien has done in this stunning collection of poems. John is gone, but O'Brien brings him back to us in this intimate landscape of love and loss. What was lost when John died? Open this beautiful book to find out.

-Laurie Wagner, author and teacher at 27 Powers

Kathleen O'Brien's collection of poetry, Novena to Loss, is a stunning tribute of love and the ache that remains after the loss of a beloved partner. Courageously, O'Brien journeys into her grief and generously guides the reader through its many steep and winding roads. What a gift to experience the depth of love contained within these poems. Novena to Loss is a rare and raw opportunity to see how "grief plays beautifully" on the page. Thank you, Kathleen.

-Joan Roger, MD and poet, Bainbridge Island