Published: 2023
Author: Becky Hemsley
Genre: Poetry / Grief Support / Self-Help
Audience: Grades 9–12 (High School) & Adults
Number of Stars: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Goodreads Link: When I Am Gone
Content/Trigger Warnings: Death, dying, bereavement, and heavy themes of emotional grief.
Review by: Sarah Williams
Publisher’s Summary
A collection of poems to help ride the waves of grief and provide comfort in the wake of loss. Becky’s words have been read as part of funerals, eulogies and memorials all around the world, providing comfort when people need it most. Written with love, When I Am Gone is here to remind you – more than anything – to be gentle with yourself.
Review
When my mom ascended to heaven in August 2022, I was completely bereft. I went back to school soon after her passing and found myself constantly seeking solace in the words of the books I had always loved, as well as chasing comfort in new books that I had never read before. This specific book was recommended to me by a close friend who had lost her own mom a few years ago, and it is a soulful referral of which I am deeply appreciative.
What I love most about this collection is that I did not need to read the book chronologically from cover to cover. Instead, I could easily open up to any random page, read a single poem, and immediately seek a pocket of solace from those words for a few brief moments. The volume is split into three distinct, thematic sections, but they absolutely do not need to be experienced in any particular order.
I was profoundly moved by many of the poems in this book, often tearing up as I sat with the text. Yet, beautifully, I also found myself smiling and laughing out loud. I highly value this collection for that exact reason—it touched my heart in so many different ways, and it remains a comforting companion that I still turn to whenever I am deeply missing my mom. If someone you know is seeking emotional comfort because of the death or painful separation from a loved one, this book serves as a wonderful, gentle help. It provides genuine words of healing and hope, and it is a book I will return to and confidently recommend to others for years to come.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- English Language Arts & Creative Expression (Writing the Modular Poem):
- Activity Idea: “Anchor Poems for Hard Seasons.” Introduce high school students to free-verse comfort poetry. Discuss how Becky Hemsley uses simple, clear phrasing to capture heavy emotional abstract concepts. Have students practice writing a short, open-ended poem designed to comfort an anonymous peer going through a difficult life transition (such as graduation, moving cities, or changing schools), focusing on themes of hope and self-gentleness.
- Counseling, Health & Social-Emotional Learning (Processing Loss Through Bibliotherapy):
- Activity Idea: “The Solace Stationary.” Taking inspiration from the reviewer’s habit of dipping into pages for brief moments of relief, create an interactive classroom “Comfort Box.” Print out several copy-permissible poems or uplifting stanzas from modern grief-support poets. Place them in decorative envelopes. Teach students how to access this resource autonomously when they are feeling emotionally overwhelmed or navigating personal domestic stress.
