Poetry rec

Start with Mary Oliver if you haven’t read her yet. “Wild Geese” gets recommended constantly for a reason but her whole collection Devotions is the one I’d grab, she writes about grief in this way that doesn’t sugarcoat it but still makes you feel less alone in it. For romance I always go back to Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair hits that achey longing feeling perfectly without getting too flowery. Someone else mentioned Richard Siken and I second that, Crush is more on the obsessive messy side of love and loss, it reads almost like a fever dream. Louise Glück is another good one for grief, her writing is sparse and a bit cold but in a way that feels true rather than distant.