“This is the book I’ve longed for—clear-eyed poems that speak to the ravages of the heart. Written by the best poets of our time, these poems meet us in our most tender, vulnerable moments and offer the balm we need to stay open. These poems celebrate our humanness and at the same time, connect us with what is divine in and around us. Each page a gift. Each poem a prayer.” —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of The Unfolding and host of “The Poetic Path”

“The luminous center of To Be Known, Claire Willis’s well-curated collection, is that poems can be healing prayers. As a poet, I’ve always felt this connection in the voice, rhythms, and imagery of both. And it's reassuring to know that Willis uses these poems in her work as a clinical social worker and lay Buddhist chaplain, offering those in need and those who support them voices of care, honesty, and hope.” —Catherine Cobb Morocco, author of Moon Without Craters or Shadows

“This is a celebration of the fullness of life with its intersecting moments of awe, grief, celebration, and uncertainty; its complexities and simple pleasures; its wants and absences. Claire B. Willis has gathered in these pages a handbook of gratitude, a roadmap for kindness, and a treasure of comfort and wisdom in a diversity of poetic voices both ancestral and emerging. I can’t think of a collection the world needs more, or an occasion this book wouldn’t suit.” —Ellen Rowland, author of In Search of Lost Birds

“With this remarkable collection—this offering—Claire Willis bears witness to how a poem, like prayer, has the ability to engage and transform everything that seems most contradictory. Hope, fear, grief, joy, despair, love: the terrible and wondrous everything is held together within these pages that meet us with solace and shelter, helping us return to the world more wholehearted. I am so grateful for this book.” —Jan Richardson, author of How the Stars Get in Your Bones

“There are times when ordinary words cannot meet us in the depths of what we are living through. A death. A birth. A heartbreak. A global or personal devastation. These are the moments we turn to poetry. To Be Known is a medicine bag full of exactly those poems. They are mirrors of what is wisest and realest within us, exquisitely calibrated to remind us who we are in the moments when we most often forget. They are companions when we feel most alone. They are prayers to carry us through the darkest and brightest moments of our living and dying.” —Kim Rosen, author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words

“Poetry is often the medicine we need. Through global uncertainties and inward turbulence, poems can companion us, connect us to one another, give voice to what is tender or vulnerable, and remind us what is most valuable. Claire Dainin Willis’s gift is compiling such wholehearted and nourishing poems. This is a collection to treasure, share, and read over and over again.” —Koshin Paley Ellison, Zen teacher and author of Untangled

“As a hospice chaplain and trauma healing therapist, I am continually seeking language that can companion the soul through life’s most sacred thresholds. To Be Known: Poetry as Prayer is a rare and exquisite offering. This collection creates a contemplative space where poetry becomes true communion—where words do not explain away mystery but gently open us to it. It is a steady, tender companion for anyone navigating loss, love, and the great passages of being human.” —Rev. Norma J. Burton, author of Navigating Liminal Realms and Lucid Dreaming Lucid Living

“Reading these poem-prayers can breathe fresh spirit into your prayer life—even if you’ve had mixed feelings about that word prayer and all it might represent. Lean into their invitation. Let them deepen your attention to, and your engagement with, the sacred gift of your days.” —Phyllis Cole-Dai, poet/writer, co-editor of the Poetry of Presence anthologies

Claire B. Willis is a lay Buddhist chaplain ordained by Roshi Joan Halifax at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, and a graduate of the Episcopal Divinity School. She focuses on contemplative practices for end-of-life care and has worked in hospice for many years. As a student of Koshin Paley Ellison, a founding teacher at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, she coauthored Opening to Grief (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2020). Her passion is the use of poetry to rejuvenate, inspire, recover, and enlighten.