Coping describes the strategies used to endure pressure, grief, conflict, or change, whether those strategies are helpful, avoidant, solitary, or communal. In poetry, coping may appear as counting breaths, washing dishes, making jokes at a funeral, or turning pain into a repeated line. The term invites attention to process rather than triumph: survival can involve improvisation, relapse, ritual, and the gradual discovery of what makes another day possible.

Coping includes the thoughts, behaviors, and social supports used to manage stress, loss, conflict, or uncertainty. Strategies may be problem-focused, such as planning, or emotion-focused, such as seeking comfort; some are helpful temporarily but harmful when relied upon rigidly. Related concepts include resilience, adaptation, regulation, and avoidance. Poetry can show coping through ritual, repetition, work, humor, or silence.