Mike Bernhardt

Mike Bernhardt’s personal journey with grief and poetry began when his first wife died in 1991. To express feelings that were often overwhelming, he turned to writing poetry. He also searched for books containing other people’s poems about grieving the death of a loved one but found little that moved him. So, he decided to create his own book. Voices of the Grieving Heart is a unique volume with over 160 selected poems, essays, and images by 83 contributors sharing their experiences of loss, grief, and transformation. Mike is a Certified Grief Educator and is trained as a facilitator in Poetry as a Tool for Wellness. He has been interviewed about grief, and the power of poetry to express the inexpressible, on radio and on a number of podcasts, including Open to Hope. He has been a presenter at various organizations including the National Association for Poetry Therapy and Rotary International. To learn more or buy Voices of the Grieving Heart, visit https://mikebernhardt.net.

Articles:

Widower Reflects on Grief Thirty Years Later

Widower Reflects on Grief One evening in my bereavement support group, a couple of months after my wife Susan died, a woman spoke about how comforting it had been to […]

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Widower Shares Emotional Journey

Someone Died Today No matter how prepared or unprepared we are for death, no matter how old or young we are, no matter how much we say, “I love you,” […]

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Widower Finds Poetry Healing

Widower Experiences Consuming Grief My wife Susan died unexpectedly in April 1991, the Sunday after Easter. I could never have imagined beforehand how transformative an experience that would be. Nothing […]

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When a Parent Starts Dating: The Role of Adult Children

Dating After a Spouse-Loss Our society has so many expectations for us after our spouse has died. We should grieve—depending on the expectations of our friends, religious traditions, or workplace […]

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Gifts in the Pain

Gifts in the Pain My wife Susan died unexpectedly in April 1991, the Sunday after Easter. I could never have imagined beforehand how transformative an experience that would be. Nothing […]

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After 30 Years, Still Not Over It

Many Years Later, Still Not Over It When a bereavement counselor or group facilitator meets us for the first time to support us in our grief, the first question they […]

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Writing Poems Can Heal

Writing Poems Can Heal Grief When grief overwhelms us, when someone whom we love more than life itself has died, we may feel that we have no words to describe […]

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