Five Oceans in a Teaspoon is an innovative, beautiful and moving collection of short visual poems written by muckraking journalist/poet Dennis J Bernstein, visualized by pioneer designer/author Warren Lehrer.
Thirty-five years after the publication of their book/play French Fries, considered a classic in visual literature and expressive typography, Bernstein and Lehrer have reunited to complete a book of visual poetry they began forty years ago. As with his journalism, Bernstein’s poems reflect the struggle of everyday people trying to survive in the face of adversity.
In his debut collection, Kelvin Parker documents the pendulum swing from loss to love, trauma to triumph, and oppression to opportunity, the repetitious movement that has come to define Black life in America. Offering reflections on history, scholarship, criminal justice, childhood psychology, and more, Parker gives a lesson on Black identity that all readers can access. His lesson is taught through insightful works of poetry that capture the resilience, survival, and humanity of Black experiences. More than just a book of poetry, Me in America is a call to action. It shines a scrutinizing light on the complex realities of this country, a nation founded on the pain, creativity, and excellence of Black people. It inspires readers to take a stand and advocate for lasting social change. No matter who you are or what you look like, Me in America will leave you with a thorough understanding of racial identity in America.
"These poems are of a seer - unwrapping time, being, the Change we are igniting. The considerations are hard won — who we are, what is coming upon us in this age, the passage we are entering and the exit - the seer knows it. There are no exhortations, no longings for forecasts,only the seeing and the forthcoming Being that envelopes us more and more "until all that is left of us". We need this wisdom book, clear elixirs from the Source. True mind-beauty, caved with humanity - beam, everyone must touch this volume in order to traverse the present age, Bravissimo!"—Juan Herrera, 21st Poet Laureate of the United States
In Eleanor Kedney's BETWEEN THE EARTH AND SKY, a brother's heroin addiction is at the center of a family where love is difficult to accept from one another, yet it is the thing that delivers understanding and forgiveness to a sister who bravely carries the family legacy.
"Grief, as we all know, is a country without borders, without laws. In her stunning first collection, Eleanor Kedney speaks to it in a language of metaphor, of love and loss, a language of 'howl, full throttle, singing the way children sing / before they learn not to.' These brave, forthright poems deal with a lost, addicted brother, an absent father, a mother making do with a fate as 'thin and papery as moth wings.' Her true subject is pain and the solace of poetry in dealing with it. Indeed, 'the wind is a dangerous thing, ' as is the courage it takes to observe and take note of the beautiful colors of 'a cold and long white sky.' There is magic in these poems, the magic of the imagination used to make remedy and comfort out of the pain of loss. A bravo performance, in so many important ways." —Philip Schultz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
In Karen Kevorkian's third poetry book, the title, Quivira, is a metaphor for a place of unimaginable riches, never to be found, which lured early explorers across the arid southwest. The intensity of such longing is not unknown by those making contemporary quests. The force of such feeling, in sharp contrast to the spare, particular beauties of the High Desert, speaks not only of desire but also to the rough accommodations made for desire unsatisfied. The book is personal but the personal is never detached from events of culture and history.
From the rural South Texas of the nineteen fifties to a desert mesa in New Mexico many years later, Anyone’s Son illuminates the moments of a life animated by the author’s yearning, at its root sexual, for the company of another man. In five sections, each one corresponding to a stage in the life delineated here, the author offers scenes from his childhood on a small farm, as well as moments of conflicted adolescence. He explores unmitigated sexual pleasure, sometimes fraught with anguish and shame. He remembers scenes from marriage and fatherhood, from the wreckage and rebuilding that came at midlife. And finally, glimpses from a second marriage, this time unconflicted, to a man, to the right man. At its heart, Anyone’s Son poses an implicit question: What is identity?
An extended poetic sequence by Leslie Ullman. Ms. Ullman is author of four poetry collections, most recently Progress on the Subject of Immensity (University of New Mexico Press, 2013. Her first collection, Natural Histories, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, and Slow Work Through Sand won the Iowa Poetry Prize. She has published a hybrid book of craft essays and writing exercises, Library of Small Happiness (3: A Taos Press, 2017). She is Professor Emerita at University of Texas-El Paso and teaches in the low-residency MFA Program at Vermont College of the Fine Arts. Now a resident of Taos, New Mexico, she teaches skiing in the winters at Taos Ski Valley.
Voice in a Cloud is the message of the present moment. It addresses becoming fully human by reshaping a view of ourselves and the invisible world. We must open and re-examine congealed ideas so we can reinterpret old ways of thinking, talking and telling the stories. Our stories guide personal, social and political decisions and commitments.
Voice in a Cloud restores faith in what is luminous in man and nature.
A book of poetry on... the warrior... her journey... and the weight of our decisions.
"No matter what they tell you Or the falsehoods crowned on thee When you emerge from their devices and you've finally broken free, Know, no matter the hammer brought down on you, it comes down to the core What truth may hold makes you what you are."
Explore the mind, war, leadership, brotherhood, strength, growth, healing and empowerment, and even deeper in the case of the warrior that returns home - the inevitable search for what comes after.
If you love Cape Cod, you'll love Moon Tide. Horseshoe crabs, ghosts, tree men, black dogs, and daffodils. These characters come alive in Moon Tide, a collection of poems charting the course of a Cape Cod year. Cape Codders may recognize themselves or their friends in these pages, and visitors will find a wonderful souvenir of their Cape Cod vacation. Moon Tide is a book for everyone who loves Cape Cod.
Poems across five decades of life - the 1950s to the 1990s - by esteemed Wisconsin poet Jan Chronister. "Chronister has fully inhabited these moments—paying full attention to each detail. She pulls us deftly through her world by rebuilding images that lead us deep into all seasons of life and place. Her ability to ground us in this world alongside her, to invite us into her head and surprise us, is the true gift of this collection." author of 'Louder Birds', winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize
"Everything sings in these pages, from birds to buildings who remember the children who once lived there. The work is a soundtrack of ghosts, a world of recovery where the dead sit on deckchairs and the living compare themselves to chalk outlines on the pavement. Powerful, startling, and utterly original these prose poems have a pulse. Hardwick is a master of the form." Angela Readman
"Poems in The Lithium Codex shape pages of a book of melancholy; gently fabricated soft prose blocks of longings and losings; lyric attempts – doomed to fail but, as failure, always also positively self-contained – to home in on and perhaps also to shrink from, or simply to understand, the painful distance or chasm agape between self and world, I and other, psyche and language, through beautiful, thoughtful, fragile phenomenological laments. Memoryscapes, mindscapes, drifting, to-ing and fro-ing in private and public time, without a real desire for origo or destination, or even authorship and/or companionship, always torn by tension of phobia and philia, processing the process of being, remembering, writing itself." Ágnes Lehóczky
R.J. Bauer is an author of short stories, fictional novels, and is an award-winning Poet. Inspired by her experiences as a Loan Collection Manager in the Credit Union Industry, she is writing her current novel, Shadows Within. She is also a member of the Silverdale Writers Roundtable group, Silverdale Beta Reader's and the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association. Living in a Navy town, in the Pacific Northwest, close to the mountains and waters, helps stimulate her intuitive mind and creativity. When not writing, you will find her fashioning inventory for her handcraft business, or spending time with her five grandchildren.
Send Me A Light is an unsparing memoir of grief told in 33 poems that read like prayers for a son who “had such a light.” In this tender, holy journey lit by stars, Julia speaks to the incredible strength of a mother’s bond, a mother searching to harbor her heartbreaking grief. You will underline and love this book for years.
Susan Lindsley's fifteenth published book is her latest collection of poetry, offered with illustrations in full color. While Susan has offered novels touching on the American South and its traditions and history, and while she has put together a number of books about her family (including her aunt, Susan Myrick, consultant for southern authentication in the making of the movie "Gone With The Wind"), her first love in writing has always been poetry.
"Haunt," Ryan Meyer's first collection of poetry, explores life through a horror lens, aiming to unnerve as it traverses through themes of life, love, loss, fear, and more.
These poems transport the reader to an imaginative world resonating with mythological, spiritual, and existential significance. Here, with wit and irony, the poet challenges us to resist common assumptions with measured skepticism, and posits that ultimately, there is no comfort in conformity. We are both entertained and enlightened by a unique, poetic exploration of ordinary experience and the mysteries of life.
The theme of the poems are a reflection of people with impairments and their lives, love, pleasure and inequalities as well as a mixture of awareness, inspirations, emotions, demands and humanities. A few of these poems are about nature. This is an attempt to provide some missing ideas about person with disabilities.
This collection of poems is bursting with a rich authenticity that bears witness to a self-reflective man who,--despite the challenge it poses to express in words the realities of love, loss, commitment and joy (and much else!)-- is able to put pen to paper to testify to life's blessings and challenges in a way that can truly touch others' hearts, minds and souls. - John Kutcher
This posthumously published poetry anthology has been produced to celebrate the life and written work of Lisa F. Gullo. The adversity she faced in her life both from physical and mental illness is nothing short of epic. The hope is that her words challenge, comfort, and inspire you to love and embrace life’s journey. - Victoria Hyla Maldonado, Editor
“Sadly there is no ice bucket challenge for migraines, especially not the hemiplegic kind. No 5K race to raise awareness. So here is my attempt to do that. If you are a migraine sufferer, please like and share. Not for me, but for all that suffer, usually in silence surrounded by way too many unopened medical bills.” - Lisa F. Gullo (1967-2018)
Endlessly the tides will dance, and repeat the eternal rhythm. Eternal Rhythm is a book of forty-two poems inspired by everything from anime to social justice issues, and written in a variety of styles. The poems span a wide range of themes, from beautifully abstract poems like "Plant Room" and "Journey" to poems inspired by society, like "Gender Roles" and "Dare".
Bruce Berger, the author, finally came home 50 years after the Vietnam war when his memories crystallized into the 34 poems in this chapbook. He shipped to Vietnam as an Infantryman in 1970 but was assigned most of the year to the Casualty Branch of the 101st Airborne Division at Camp Eagle, near Phu Bai. As “next-of-kin” editor, he wrote hundreds of sympathy letters to grieving families back home for loss of their soldier, and sometimes helped gather fallen brothers on battle grounds to begin their long journeys home.
Through this lens, his poems evoke an overwhelming sense of loss on many fronts: the brave American soldiers who gave their lives in the long war; a village of South Vietnamese widows; the thousands of bui doi, innocent but reviled half-breed (Amerasian) children; the empty afterness of battle grounds and burials; the long, deadly reach of Agent Orange and PTSD into veterans’ lives still today; and the thunderous silence of missing parades back home. Writing these poems brought him home.
Many of the poems are illustrated with artwork created by members of the Providence Art Club in Rhode Island. All earnings from this book will be donated to the Vietnam Veterans of America.
The tale of Laia, the Butterfly Princess, is a body image parable for children that inspires them to embrace the uniqueness of their design. Follow Laia as she explores unknown lands and finds friends who have body differences like her own. Laia’s continuing story encourages all children to discover diverse friends in unlikely places.
I am proud to share my personal experiences while providing a glimpse of concealed true stories to the world. Let’s learn to fight against oppression, learn to love ourselves so we can learn to love everyone around us and get to know our next door neighbor(s) so as to find the similarities within one another. It may be that in observing these subjects we can begin to comprehend a world fighting for freedom and peace of mind. Let’s begin to plant hope together; is it not time to do so? We have dreamed for generations to end cruelty and shed love instead of blood so let’s hold hands to defend against evil.
The Keeping is a heartfelt collection that explores growing up in rural Oklahoma, engaging with the natural world, and paying tribute to women. From the very first poem entitled "Our Mothers Would Not Let Us Watch," Linda Neal Reising casts the reader into the landscape of her childhood, a rural part of Oklahoma, where the lead and zinc mines played out years before, leaving "those gaping mouths that never swallowed." She goes on to people the landscape with characters--a father who went to school with Mickey Mantle in "No. 7 and Other Heroes," a cousin convinced he is being hunted by the "F.B.I., C.I.A., Russians," and teenagers attempting to navigate adolescence during wartime, concerned with being "faroutgroovyheavyman." Intertwined in this section is the author's Native American roots.
Wonderful language, beautifully crafted. These poems come direct from the heart, and are intensely moving. Many themes are covered, and each one is handled skilfully and passionately. This book is essentially one poem, divided into twelve sections, powerfully describing one man's search for happiness in a cruel world that is out to destroy him. The ending is divine, and will leave you breathless. This is the third book by an original, talented poet, with a unique voice. A must read for all fans of poetry.
Writing in the vibrant voice of “A Russian Immigrant” and employing a rich variety of poetic forms, award-winning author and Boston College professor Maxim D. Shrayer offers thirty-six interconnected poems about the impact of election-year politics and COVID-19 on American society. Through a combination of biting satire and piercing lyricism, “Of Politics and Pandemics” delivers a translingual poetic manifesto of despair, hope, love, and loss.
In its triune sections, Relationship Determines Decision explores a lifetime of relationships formed "With the Earth," "With Others," and "With Ourselves" via free verse. Presenting himself as one among infinite perspectives within the symbiosis of life, shaped by and shaping all that is encountered along the way, the poet patiently calls for a return to a communal and holistic mindset amidst prevailing megalomania.
With layered attention to sound, image, rhythm, metaphor, Where Space Bends’ carefully hewn poems bring alive the story of a woman who lives by herself in an enchanting, rural mountain hamlet. Bookended and woven throughout is the shadow of Lyme Disease.
The book invites us into her inner reflections, how she uncovers wonder in daily rituals. She yanks out creeper vines, overwinters roots in the basement just before the equinox, crisps sunflower seeds and shovels new snow, hoisting mounds onto frozen banks higher than her shoulders. She considers the patience of the hundred-year-old Victorian, and asks whether those that had owned it had loved it enough. Alone by choice through an uncharacteristically cold winter, she sees she is aging in the feathering whiteness of her hair.
In Star Witness, Orlando Ferrand's rite of passage, the poet lets his personal experiences serve as fuel to ruminate about issues directly related to the human condition. He tells his story with the hope that we may formulate our own questions and consider deeper truths. Does the soul have a gender? Is there a universal identity beyond our ethnic ancestry? Can knowledge become wisdom in our journey on Earth?
Through the retelling of some ancient tales, superstitions, Judeo-Christian legends and motifs, as well as biographical impersonations in the midst of devastation and hope, the poet contends with circumstances revolving around the highs and lows of love and loss, the violence often associated with lust, the alienation experienced by those in exile, and other acute existential crises, and wrestles at the same time with the possibility that we may be living in the twilight of human civilization.
Poetry. "I fingered the contours of the trunk, pondering the novelty of the spaces formed at the places where the grooves of my skin met the grooves of the bark, from its base to its branches.
Reading Was Body provided a jolt I didn't realize I needed. Using tropes of iteration and erasure, medical mythologies, nude portraiture, phantasmagoria, and "theme and variation" on phrases ranging from "cellar door" to "lighter fluid," Billie R. Tadros bewitches us with language's associative properties. Fun House Mirror Sonnets? Here. The emotional semantics of Hollandaise sauce? Here. These are poems of loss and reckoning; yet these nimble poems also claim life, in tooth and claw, and the possibilities of love. "A Ferris wheel spelling/appellations," a speaker observes, "bulb color." I'm grateful to take the ride. --Sandra Beasley
Heroine may cause a man to feel invincible. Cocaine may make a man feel like he can run past the speed of light. Ecstasy may make a man feel like every nerve in his body is coming alive. Still, no matter how potent those substances may be, it's a fact, love is the most potent drug of all. This fact is especially true when Juan awakens from a two-month coma, unsure of what his life had been. The only time he feels he is close to the truth is in the presence of women with specific characteristics. This shaky memory causes Juan to become the DEA's secret weapon. Once recovered, he is quickly sent on a mission to become a honeypot for the battered, abused wives of Narcos elites.
My Long Journey in Baltimore is a collection of poetry sharing author Lawerence E. Mize's personal tales of surviving and overcoming obstacles. Mize grew up in Baltimore with a difficult childhood and alcoholic parents. He dropped out of high school and served in Vietnam. Returning home, he continued to serve as a police officer in the Baltimore City Police Department and spent fifteen years as a District Court Bailiff for the State of Maryland. Mize's reflections cover his life's events and experiences as a child, a man, a soldier, and an officer.
