The Poetry of Loss: Making Meaning from Tragedy Andi had never thought of herself as a writer. However, facing the loss of everything she owned, she wrote long e-mails to her large network of friends. The e-mails turned into essays, which turned into a blog, www.burningdownthehouseblog.com. Through her blog, Andi shares her experiences with hundreds of readers on what she calls “the poetry of loss.” Despite the pain and the anger, Andi says, there is a new sense of “wonder, and exploration, and learning, and excitement”—the “terrible gift” of great loss (O’Conor, 2011). Andi also did a TEDx talk about her experiences, which you can watch at http://tinyurl.com/pv9f96r. Can you identify the different coping strategies that Andi used?

Greg Lefcourt