It offered me some small comfort because I knew that even in my son’s darkest hours, he was always loved – and still is – and was never for a moment alone. I began, again, to share poems and ...

“If I didn’t have their support, I wouldn’t have been able to move forward after my son’s death,” said Carlota Lopez, 56. Her son David Lopez was killed in 2009.

Doris Hernandez reads from a notebook of poems that she wrote to help her cope with the loss of her son, who was killed in 2012 in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, on May 9, 2024 ...

Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son” incarnates that very idea with messages of hope and perseverance. Luckily, his poetry ...

The larger poem is about passing a similar message on to his son. “It’s about needing to push my son not to be afraid of contact, but also to understand the risks that are involved,” said Davis.

So there are some poems that really address poetry. In fact, the last one by Matthew Zapruder ends, “I love my son / his little bear pajamas / my wife the grass / the ends of poems.” ...

At 9:22 a.m. on March 23, I shared the poem, “Jabberwocky,” with my WhatsApp group. My son’s heart stopped beating 3½ hours later, as I held his hand and sang to him.