Former Dent resident publishes a collection of poetry – Perham Focus

PERHAM

— After years of writing for herself, former Dent resident Sonja Kosler has decided to share her work with the world, publishing her first collection of poetry titled, “and grief will find its way.”

Kosler, who lived in Dent for 25 years, worked for the Perham Focus, Lakes Radio and the Perham Area Chamber of Commerce. During that time, she had individual poems published in magazines. In 2022, Sonja moved from East Silent Lake in Dora Township to Poulsbo, Washington, on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Once she moved to Poulsbo, she spent time going through old poems she had written and found that a lot of them had similar themes about grief and loss.

“Some of the poems started decades ago. I’m one of those writers that edits 75 times before I’m done with it,” Kosler said. “After I moved, I knew I was going to pull out all of my bits, scraps, notes and drafts and try to do something with it. I noticed that in all of that, I somehow managed to have a great deal of work about loss.”

In her new book, Kosler shares her perspective on grief as more than just a negative emotion. For her, grief is more of a necessary healing process. Grief has a way of following us around and forcing us to remember things that we are sad we have lost, but in remembering those things, grief can also bring us feelings of joy and laughter.

“Looking back through all the different forms of loss which invite grief, I realized grief isn’t a heavy, negative, horrible thing,” Kosler said. “Sometimes it can be funny. Sometimes it can cause you to laugh. When you’re grieving and you start talking about someone who’s not around anymore, pretty soon you’re going to laugh.”

Kosler said she believes each of us has our own unique relationship with loss and yet grief will find its way in, along and out of our lives.

“Not all of the poems in there are about loss. There are some little nature poems, little short haikus and sort of breathers in between the heavy stuff,” Kosler continued.

According to Kosler, the title of the book comes from someone asking her how she deals with loss. She wrote the poem “Advice” after talking to this friend about the loss of her husband.

“The last line is actually ‘and grief will find its way home.’ So when I was putting the collection together and I saw that line again it just jumped at me,” Kosler said.

She added that she had trouble writing for a long time while grief was visiting her, so it was not only rewarding to put this collection together as a part of her grieving process but it was most rewarding to hear how her words have helped others to deal with their journey with grief.

“The feedback that I’ve gotten from people has been so rewarding,” Kosler said. “You know, we write poetry in a vacuum and when we put it out there to share and it becomes complete and you hear that it touches people, that’s the reward”

Copies of “and grief will find its way” are available at Big Pine Books in Perham, the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and on Amazon.

Williams has worked as a reporter for the Perham Focus since April 2024. He has also worked at a newspaper in New Baltimore, Michigan, after graduating from Michigan State University in 2019.