Losing Languages

Losing Languages
By Paige Pierce
Blurb, 2025
158 pages
ISBN: 9798331170066
$26.99
Reviewed by Emily Brandstaetter

 

Losing Languages by Paige Pierce is a poetry collection about loss, grief, and the relentlessness of love. The book is divided into three sections: “All that I have lost,” “All that I have loved,” and “All that I have learned.” It moves from the immediate aftermath of loss or trauma and a vocabulary of mourning, to the many faces of love, to conclude with revelations about self-discovery and hope.

 

The book is dedicated to Pierce’s late grandmother and shares fond memories she cherishes beyond the ache and sorrow: “the shadow of your essence.” Pierce’s graceful imagery explores complex emotions in heartbreak in romantic relationships as well: “you were the one / turning me cold / sharpening the edges / around such a soft thing.”

 

In “What it’s like to be loved,” Pierce explores the innocence of girlhood, nostalgia, and reminiscing about the past. The poem reflects on life’s unpredictable turns, moving from the dark reality of loss to the miracle of being alive.

 

In “Grief is a four-letter word,” Pierce writes, “this is years of dry heaving / … / this is what it is for your mind to die / and body remain living.” Pierce’s work highlights the unsettling feeling of disorientation that occurs when trying to make sense of loss in all its myriad forms.

 

In “ He knows something about longing,” the final lines read: “and be buried by the crushing isolation / of loving him twice / and losing him all the same,” exploring messy relationships, longing, and the non-linear journey that is an individual’s recovery from pain.

 

In “The beginning of everything,” Pierce writes about her teaching career, shifting into lighter territory to invite growth and renewal: “I’m really making a difference here / … / it is the first day / of all that I’ve worked for / this is the beginning of everything.”

 

Pierce’s unpretentious meditations ask us to reconsider how we view loss and heartache and challenge the reader to practice gratitude and forgiveness once woe has run its course. At the end of the collection, in “Purgatory,” she says: “this book / is my loving and losing / this purgatory / is sharper than my imagination.”

 

Ultimately, her collection navigates discomforting feelings that pass in stages and remind us that observing and experiencing these transitions is a rite of passage that ultimately strengthens both character and resolve.

 

Paige Pierce is the author of eight self-published poetry collections: Losing Languages, Stomach Aches, Things We Can’t Say Over Coffee, Coloured Ink, Pretty Boys, Paper Stars, Dreaming of Daffodils, and A Lifetime is Seven Days. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree from Vancouver Island University and was co-valedictorian in 2025. She was appointed a two-year term as the Youth Poet Laureate of Nanaimo for 2024-2026, promoting community engagement, making appearances, and hosting workshops to encourage young writers. She lives in Nanaimo, BC and wants to teach high school.