Neil Astley is the editor of Bloodaxe Books which he founded in 1978. His books include many anthologies, most notably those in the Staying Alive series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011) and Staying Human (2020), along with four collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food (2007) and Soul Feast (2024), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets and In Person: World Poets. He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, and has published two poetry collections, Darwin Survivor and Biting My Tongue, as well as two novels, The End of My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep Who Changed the World. He was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books in 1995; is a patron and past trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival; and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. He lives in the Tarset valley in Northumberland.

• 1: STOP ALL THE CLOCKS: poems of griefW.H. Auden 10 Funeral BluesC.K. Williams 10 WeptNorman MacCaig 12 MemorialR.S. Thomas 12 ComparisonsChristina Rossetti 13 RememberLinda Pastan 14 The Five Stages of GriefRudyard Kipling 15 The WidowerJanet Frame 16 The SuicidesGeorge Herbert 17 LifeRobert Herrick 17 Epitaph Upon a Child That DiedEdwin Muir 18 The Child DyingBen Jonson 19 On My First SonneHugh O’Donnell 19 LightD.J. Enright 20 On the Death of a ChildAnonymous 20 The Unquiet GraveEmily Brontë 21 RemembranceJames Russell Lowell 22 After the BurialAdrian Mitchell 24 Especially When It Snows2: LIVES ENRICHED: poems of celebrationEdgar A. Guest 26 Because He LivedRobert Burns 26 Epitaph on a FriendBrendan Kennelly 27 The GoodStephen Dobyns 28 When a FriendWilliam Shakespeare 29 Cleopatra’s Lament for AntonyWilliam Shakespeare 30 Dirge for FideleDavid Constantine 31 ‘We say the dead depart’Anonymous 32 ‘Not, how did he die, but how did he live?’Alfred, Lord Tennyson 32 from In Memoriam A.H.H.Langston Hughes 33 As Befits a ManJoyce Grenfell 33 from Joyce: By Herself and Her FriendsWilliam Carlos Williams 34 TractRaymond Carver 36 GravyBasho 36 Haiku3: I AM NOT THERE: body & spiritAnonymous 38 ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep’Christina Rossetti 38 SongMary Lee Hall 39 Turn Again to LifeHenry van Dyke 39 For Katrina’s Sun DialBhartrhari 40 ‘Thinking I enjoyed the pleasures of life’D.H. Lawrence 40 DemiurgeGail Holst-Warhaft 41 In the End Is the BodyPablo Neruda 42 Sonnet lxxxixIssa 42 HaikuAbu al-Ala al-Ma‘arri 43 The Soul Driven from the BodyDevara Dasimayya 43 ‘I’m the one who has the body’Ruth Pitter 44 The ParadoxRumi 44 ‘Everything you see’4: THE DYING OF THE LIGHT: pain & resolutionDylan Thomas 46 Do Not Go Gentle into That Good NightW.E. Henley 46 InvictusDavid Wright 47 ArcadiaCzeslaw Milosz 49 On Parting with My Wife, JaninaPamela Gillilan 50 from When You DiedPhilip Larkin 52 AubadeC.K. Williams 53 from Le Petit SalviéAnne Stevenson 57 The MinisterVirginia Hamilton Adair 58 A Last Marriage5: THE OTHER SIDE: comfort & hauntingJane Kenyon 60 Notes from the Other SideThom Gunn 60 The ReassurancePatricia Pogson 61 BreathC.K. Williams 62 OhKen Smith 63 Years go byBrendan Kennelly 64 I See You Dancing, FatherPatrick Kavanagh 65 In Memory of My MotherBilly Collins 66 The DeadVladimír Holan 66 ResurrectionCharles Causley 67 Eden RockJeanne Willis 67 Inside Our DreamsMeera 68 SongShiki 68 Haiku6: NOTHING DIES: release & letting goEmily Dickinson 70 After Great PainMary Oliver 70 In Blackwater WoodsWalt Whitman 71 from Song of MyselfRumi 73 Unmarked BoxesMona Van Duyn 74 The CreationThomas Hardy 77 HeredityAlice Walker 78 ‘Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the MorningDavid Ignatow 78 KaddishR.S. Thomas 79 A MarriageWendell Berry 80 Three Elegiac PoemsJane Kenyon 82 In the Nursing HomeRumi 82 ‘Why cling’Mary Oliver 83 When Death ComesStevie Smith 84 Come, DeathJohn Donne 84 ‘Death be not proud’Anne Ridler 85 Nothing Is LostJane Kenyon 86 Let Evening ComeLouis MacNeice 87 from Autumn JournalAnonymous 87 A Celtic BlessingRaymond Carver 88 No NeedAlden Nowlan 88 This Is What I Wante to Sign Off WithRaymond Carver 89 Late FragmentPablo Neruda 89 Dead WomanKaniyan Punkunran 90 Every Town a Home TownBrendan Kennelly 91 Begin92 Acknowledgements95 Index of writers

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Neil Astley is the editor of Bloodaxe Books which he founded in 1978. His books include many anthologies, most notably those in the Staying Alive series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011) and Staying Human (2020), along with four collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food (2007) and Soul Feast (2024), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets and In Person: World Poets. He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, and has published two poetry collections, Darwin Survivor and Biting My Tongue, as well as two novels, The End of My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep Who Changed the World. He was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books in 1995; is a patron and past trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival; and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. He lives in the Tarset valley in Northumberland.

• 1: STOP ALL THE CLOCKS: poems of griefW.H. Auden 10 Funeral BluesC.K. Williams 10 WeptNorman MacCaig 12 MemorialR.S. Thomas 12 ComparisonsChristina Rossetti 13 RememberLinda Pastan 14 The Five Stages of GriefRudyard Kipling 15 The WidowerJanet Frame 16 The SuicidesGeorge Herbert 17 LifeRobert Herrick 17 Epitaph Upon a Child That DiedEdwin Muir 18 The Child DyingBen Jonson 19 On My First SonneHugh O’Donnell 19 LightD.J. Enright 20 On the Death of a ChildAnonymous 20 The Unquiet GraveEmily Brontë 21 RemembranceJames Russell Lowell 22 After the BurialAdrian Mitchell 24 Especially When It Snows2: LIVES ENRICHED: poems of celebrationEdgar A. Guest 26 Because He LivedRobert Burns 26 Epitaph on a FriendBrendan Kennelly 27 The GoodStephen Dobyns 28 When a FriendWilliam Shakespeare 29 Cleopatra’s Lament for AntonyWilliam Shakespeare 30 Dirge for FideleDavid Constantine 31 ‘We say the dead depart’Anonymous 32 ‘Not, how did he die, but how did he live?’Alfred, Lord Tennyson 32 from In Memoriam A.H.H.Langston Hughes 33 As Befits a ManJoyce Grenfell 33 from Joyce: By Herself and Her FriendsWilliam Carlos Williams 34 TractRaymond Carver 36 GravyBasho 36 Haiku3: I AM NOT THERE: body & spiritAnonymous 38 ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep’Christina Rossetti 38 SongMary Lee Hall 39 Turn Again to LifeHenry van Dyke 39 For Katrina’s Sun DialBhartrhari 40 ‘Thinking I enjoyed the pleasures of life’D.H. Lawrence 40 DemiurgeGail Holst-Warhaft 41 In the End Is the BodyPablo Neruda 42 Sonnet lxxxixIssa 42 HaikuAbu al-Ala al-Ma‘arri 43 The Soul Driven from the BodyDevara Dasimayya 43 ‘I’m the one who has the body’Ruth Pitter 44 The ParadoxRumi 44 ‘Everything you see’4: THE DYING OF THE LIGHT: pain & resolutionDylan Thomas 46 Do Not Go Gentle into That Good NightW.E. Henley 46 InvictusDavid Wright 47 ArcadiaCzeslaw Milosz 49 On Parting with My Wife, JaninaPamela Gillilan 50 from When You DiedPhilip Larkin 52 AubadeC.K. Williams 53 from Le Petit SalviéAnne Stevenson 57 The MinisterVirginia Hamilton Adair 58 A Last Marriage5: THE OTHER SIDE: comfort & hauntingJane Kenyon 60 Notes from the Other SideThom Gunn 60 The ReassurancePatricia Pogson 61 BreathC.K. Williams 62 OhKen Smith 63 Years go byBrendan Kennelly 64 I See You Dancing, FatherPatrick Kavanagh 65 In Memory of My MotherBilly Collins 66 The DeadVladimír Holan 66 ResurrectionCharles Causley 67 Eden RockJeanne Willis 67 Inside Our DreamsMeera 68 SongShiki 68 Haiku6: NOTHING DIES: release & letting goEmily Dickinson 70 After Great PainMary Oliver 70 In Blackwater WoodsWalt Whitman 71 from Song of MyselfRumi 73 Unmarked BoxesMona Van Duyn 74 The CreationThomas Hardy 77 HeredityAlice Walker 78 ‘Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the MorningDavid Ignatow 78 KaddishR.S. Thomas 79 A MarriageWendell Berry 80 Three Elegiac PoemsJane Kenyon 82 In the Nursing HomeRumi 82 ‘Why cling’Mary Oliver 83 When Death ComesStevie Smith 84 Come, DeathJohn Donne 84 ‘Death be not proud’Anne Ridler 85 Nothing Is LostJane Kenyon 86 Let Evening ComeLouis MacNeice 87 from Autumn JournalAnonymous 87 A Celtic BlessingRaymond Carver 88 No NeedAlden Nowlan 88 This Is What I Wante to Sign Off WithRaymond Carver 89 Late FragmentPablo Neruda 89 Dead WomanKaniyan Punkunran 90 Every Town a Home TownBrendan Kennelly 91 Begin92 Acknowledgements95 Index of writers

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Neil Astley is the editor of Bloodaxe Books which he founded in 1978. His books include many anthologies, most notably those in the Staying Alive series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011) and Staying Human (2020), along with four collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food (2007) and Soul Feast (2024), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets and In Person: World Poets. He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, and has published two poetry collections, Darwin Survivor and Biting My Tongue, as well as two novels, The End of My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep Who Changed the World. He was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books in 1995; is a patron and past trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival; and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. He lives in the Tarset valley in Northumberland.

• 1: STOP ALL THE CLOCKS: poems of griefW.H. Auden 10 Funeral BluesC.K. Williams 10 WeptNorman MacCaig 12 MemorialR.S. Thomas 12 ComparisonsChristina Rossetti 13 RememberLinda Pastan 14 The Five Stages of GriefRudyard Kipling 15 The WidowerJanet Frame 16 The SuicidesGeorge Herbert 17 LifeRobert Herrick 17 Epitaph Upon a Child That DiedEdwin Muir 18 The Child DyingBen Jonson 19 On My First SonneHugh O’Donnell 19 LightD.J. Enright 20 On the Death of a ChildAnonymous 20 The Unquiet GraveEmily Brontë 21 RemembranceJames Russell Lowell 22 After the BurialAdrian Mitchell 24 Especially When It Snows2: LIVES ENRICHED: poems of celebrationEdgar A. Guest 26 Because He LivedRobert Burns 26 Epitaph on a FriendBrendan Kennelly 27 The GoodStephen Dobyns 28 When a FriendWilliam Shakespeare 29 Cleopatra’s Lament for AntonyWilliam Shakespeare 30 Dirge for FideleDavid Constantine 31 ‘We say the dead depart’Anonymous 32 ‘Not, how did he die, but how did he live?’Alfred, Lord Tennyson 32 from In Memoriam A.H.H.Langston Hughes 33 As Befits a ManJoyce Grenfell 33 from Joyce: By Herself and Her FriendsWilliam Carlos Williams 34 TractRaymond Carver 36 GravyBasho 36 Haiku3: I AM NOT THERE: body & spiritAnonymous 38 ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep’Christina Rossetti 38 SongMary Lee Hall 39 Turn Again to LifeHenry van Dyke 39 For Katrina’s Sun DialBhartrhari 40 ‘Thinking I enjoyed the pleasures of life’D.H. Lawrence 40 DemiurgeGail Holst-Warhaft 41 In the End Is the BodyPablo Neruda 42 Sonnet lxxxixIssa 42 HaikuAbu al-Ala al-Ma‘arri 43 The Soul Driven from the BodyDevara Dasimayya 43 ‘I’m the one who has the body’Ruth Pitter 44 The ParadoxRumi 44 ‘Everything you see’4: THE DYING OF THE LIGHT: pain & resolutionDylan Thomas 46 Do Not Go Gentle into That Good NightW.E. Henley 46 InvictusDavid Wright 47 ArcadiaCzeslaw Milosz 49 On Parting with My Wife, JaninaPamela Gillilan 50 from When You DiedPhilip Larkin 52 AubadeC.K. Williams 53 from Le Petit SalviéAnne Stevenson 57 The MinisterVirginia Hamilton Adair 58 A Last Marriage5: THE OTHER SIDE: comfort & hauntingJane Kenyon 60 Notes from the Other SideThom Gunn 60 The ReassurancePatricia Pogson 61 BreathC.K. Williams 62 OhKen Smith 63 Years go byBrendan Kennelly 64 I See You Dancing, FatherPatrick Kavanagh 65 In Memory of My MotherBilly Collins 66 The DeadVladimír Holan 66 ResurrectionCharles Causley 67 Eden RockJeanne Willis 67 Inside Our DreamsMeera 68 SongShiki 68 Haiku6: NOTHING DIES: release & letting goEmily Dickinson 70 After Great PainMary Oliver 70 In Blackwater WoodsWalt Whitman 71 from Song of MyselfRumi 73 Unmarked BoxesMona Van Duyn 74 The CreationThomas Hardy 77 HeredityAlice Walker 78 ‘Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the MorningDavid Ignatow 78 KaddishR.S. Thomas 79 A MarriageWendell Berry 80 Three Elegiac PoemsJane Kenyon 82 In the Nursing HomeRumi 82 ‘Why cling’Mary Oliver 83 When Death ComesStevie Smith 84 Come, DeathJohn Donne 84 ‘Death be not proud’Anne Ridler 85 Nothing Is LostJane Kenyon 86 Let Evening ComeLouis MacNeice 87 from Autumn JournalAnonymous 87 A Celtic BlessingRaymond Carver 88 No NeedAlden Nowlan 88 This Is What I Wante to Sign Off WithRaymond Carver 89 Late FragmentPablo Neruda 89 Dead WomanKaniyan Punkunran 90 Every Town a Home TownBrendan Kennelly 91 Begin92 Acknowledgements95 Index of writers

Select Guide Rating