Celebrating National Poetry Month: Books on Display

"Tell me how to live so many lives at once ..." Fowzi, who beats everyone at dominoes; Ibtisam, who wanted to be a doctor; Abu Mahmoud, who knows every eggplant and peach in his West Bank garden; mysterious Uncle Mohammed, who moved to the mountain; a girl in a red sweater dangling a book bag; children in velvet dresses who haunt the candy bowl at the party; Baba Kamalyari, age 71; Mr. Dajani and his swans; Sitti Khadra, who never lost her peace inside. Maybe they have something to tell us. Naomi Shihab Nye has been writing about being Arab-American, about Jerusalem, about the West Bank, about family all her life. These new and collected poems of the Middle East -- sixty in all -- appear together here for the first time.

Alabanza is a twenty-year collection charting the emergence of Mart?n Espada as the preeminent Latino lyric voice of his generation. "Alabanza" means "praise" in Spanish, and Espada praises the people Whitman called "them the others are down upon": the African slaves who brought their music to Puerto Rico; a prison inmate provoking brawls so he could write poetry in solitary confinement; a janitor and his solitary strike; Espada's own father, who was jailed in Mississippi for refusing to go to the back of the bus. The poet bears witness to death and rebirth at the ruins of a famine village in Ireland, a town plaza in M?xico welcoming a march of Zapatista rebels, and the courtroom where he worked as a tenant lawyer. The title poem pays homage to the immigrant food-service workers who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center. From the earliest out-of-print work to the seventeen new poems included here, Espada celebrates the American political imagination and the resilience of human dignity. Alabanza is the epic vision of a writer who, in the words of Russell Banks, "is one of the handful of American poets who are forging a new American language, one that tells the unwritten history of the continent, speaks truth to power, and sings songs of selves we can no longer silence." An American Library Association Notable Book of 2003 and a 2003 New York Public Library Book to Remember. "To read this work is to be struck breathless, and surely, to come away changed." --Barbara Kingsolver "Mart?n Espada is the Pablo Neruda of North American authors. If it was up to me, I'd select him as the Poet Laureate of the United States." --Sandra Cisneros "With these new and selected poems, you can grasp how powerful a poet Espada is--his range, his compassion, his astonishing images, his sense of history, his knowledge of the lives on the underbelly of cities, his bright anger, his tenderness, his humor." --Marge Piercy "Espada's poems are not just clarion calls to the heart and conscience, but also wonderfully crafted gems." --Julia Alvarez "A passionate, readable poetry that makes [Espada] arguably the most important 'minority' U.S. poet since Langston Hughes." --Booklist "Neruda is dead, but if Alabanza is any clue, his ghost lives through a poet named Mart?n Espada." --San Francisco Chronicle

In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family's lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo's personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice. A descendent of storytellers and "one of our finest--and most complicated--poets" (Los Angeles Review of Books), Joy Harjo continues her legacy with this latest powerful collection.

American War Poetry spans the history of the nation. Beginning with the Colonial Wars of the eighteenth-century and ending with the Gulf Wars, this original and significant anthology presents four centuries of American men and women-soldiers, nurses, reporters, and embattled civilians-writing about war. American War Poetry opens with a ballad by a freed African American slave commenting on a skirmish with Indians in a Massachusetts meadow. Poems on the American Revolution follow, as well as poems on "minor" conflicts like the Mexican War and the Spanish-American Wars. This compact anthology has generous selections on the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnamese-American War, but it also includes an unusually large offering on American participation in the Spanish Civil War. Another section covers four hundred years of conflict with Native Americans, ending with poems by contemporary Indians who respond passionately and directly to their difficult history. The collection also reaches into current reaction to American involvement in Latin America, Bosnia, and the Gulf Wars. Showing the depth of feeling and the range of thinking with which Americans have confronted war, American War Poetry expands our sense of what poetry is made to do. While the birth of a national identity is documented in early poems, the anthology also conveys the growing sophistication of a uniquely American style. Although early war poems show that the first justification for war was purely defensive, as American global ambitions matured, American writers moved increasingly to deplore a homegrown imperialism and its terrible costs. While many familiar poems of patriotic ardor have been chosen, other poems show a steady interest in antiwar themes. Lorrie Goldensohn provides a brief biography for each poet and places each poem in its proper literary and historical context. Comprehensive and compelling, American War Poetry not only documents the birth and development of a national style of expression but shows the force of poetry working on the historical moment, making it come vitally alive.

A wonderfully accessible guide to the transcendent poetry of one of America's favorite poets Widely revered during his lifetime, Robert Frost continues to enchant readers today, nearly a century after the publication of his first volume of poems, A Boy's Will. This book presents a splendid selection of sixty-five poems from across Frost's writing career, beginning in the 1890s and ending with "Directive" from the 1940s. Tim Kendall offers a detailed account of each poem, enabling readers to follow the journey which Frost himself recognized in all great poetry: "It begins in delight and ends in wisdom." In addition to close readings of the poems, The Art of Robert Frost traces the development of Frost's writing career and relevant aspects of his life. The book also assesses the particular nature of the poet's style, how it changes over time, and how it relates to the works of contemporary poets and movements, including Modernism. The first book on Frost to combine selected poems with a critical study, this appealing volume will be welcome on the shelves of scholars, students, and all other readers who love fine poetry.

Here is an unusually diverse collection of Beat voices, including not only Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg, but Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure, Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen. Also included are short biographies of the writers and a "Literary Guide to Beat Places" around the world.

The hardcover publication of Blackbird Singing, the first collection of Paul McCartney's poems and lyrics, was an international cultural event--celebrated in concert halls, at literary festivals, and in newspapers and magazines throughout the world. "While McCartney is of a completely different cast than Bob Dylan, his appeal may be even greater than that of the latter great poet-songwriter," wrote Publishers Weekly; The Guardian hailed McCartney's words as "a remarkable feat of historical imagination." The best-selling Blackbird Singing now includes several new poems and lyrics, including "Freedom," which McCartney performed in New York City at a benefit concert last fall. To actually read McCartney's poems, whether exuberant ballads of love or poignant messages of deepest grief, is to appreciate the electrifying power of the confluence of dream and song. Inspired by his late wife, Linda McCartney, Blackbird Singing gives us extraordinary access to the inner life of one of the most influential figures of our time.

What does it mean to be black and alive right now? "A literary experience unlike any I've had in recent memory . . . a blueprint for this moment and the next, for where Black folks have been and where they might be going."-The New York Times Book Review(Editors' Choice) What does it mean to be Black and alive right now? Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work-images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more-to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm- Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, Black Futures opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader.

Praise for Aracelis Girmay: "[Girmay's] every loss--she calls them estrangements--is a yearning for connection across time and place; her every fragment is a bulwark against ruin." --O, The Oprah Magazine Taking its name from the moon's dark plains, misidentified as seas by early astronomers,the black mariainvestigates African diasporic histories, the consequences of racism within American culture, and the question of human identity. Central to this project is a desire to recognize the lives of Eritrean refugees who have been made invisible by years of immigration crisis, refugee status, exile, and resulting statelessness. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award for Poetry, Girmay's newest collection elegizes and celebrates life, while wrestling with the humanistic notion of seeing beyond: seeing violence, seeing grace, and seeing each other better. "to the sea" great storage house, history on which we rode, we touched the brief pulse of your fluttering pages, spelled with salt & life, your rage, your indifference your gentleness washing our feet, all of you going on whether or not we live, to you we bring our carnations yellow & pink, how they float like bright sentences atop your memory's dark hair Aracelis Girmayis the author of three poetry collections,the black maria;Kingdom Animalia, which won the Isabella Gardner Award and was a finalist for the NBCC Award; andTeeth. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award, she has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome, Cave Canem, and Watson foundations, as well as Civitella Ranieri and the NEA. She currently teaches at Hampshire College's School for Interdisciplinary Arts and in Drew University's low residency MFA program. Originally from Santa Ana, California, she splits her time between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts.

This book presents the natural world seen through the eyes of black poets. ""Black Nature"" is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated. Black poets have a long tradition of incorporating treatments of the natural world into their work, but it is often read as political, historical, or protest poetry - anything but nature poetry. This is particularly true when the definition of what constitutes nature writing is limited to work about the pastoral or the wild. Camille T. Dungy has selected 180 poems from 93 poets that provide unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of nature poetry and African American poetics. This collection features major writers, such as Phillis Wheatley, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Wanda Coleman, Natasha Trethewey, and Melvin B. Tolson, as well as newer talents, such as Douglas Kearney, Major Jackson, and Janice Harrington. Included are poets writing out of slavery, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century African American poetic movements. ""Black Nature"" brings to the fore a neglected and vital means of considering poetry by African Americans and nature-related poetry as a whole.

The long-awaited collection by one of the most distinguished poets working today.

2019 National Book Award Longlist "With Build Yourself a Boat, Camonghne Felix heralds a thrillingly new form of storytelling." --Morgan Parker, author of Magical Negro This is about what grows through the wreckage. This is an anthem of survival and a look at what might come after. A view of what floats and what, ultimately, sustains. Build Yourself a Boat redefines the language of collective and individual trauma through lyric and memory.

The instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.  

A lyrical picture book debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long   "I can hear change humming In its loudest, proudest song. I don't fear change coming, And so I sing along."   In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes--big or small--in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.    With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo by #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.

This utterly delightful anthology gathers poetic responses to other poems in a dialogue conducted across space and time. Here are poems that answer, argue with, update, elaborate on, mock, interrogate, or pay tribute to poems of the past. We hear Leda's view of the Swan; feel sympathy for La Belle Dame sans Merci, and find out how Marvell's coy mistress might have answered his appeal. Raleigh's famous reply to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" sparked a centuries-long debate that John Donne, William Carlos Williams, C. Day Lewis, and Ogden Nash could not resist joining. In these pages we see Denise Levertov respond to Wordsworth, Randall Jarrell to Auden, Ogden Nash to Byron, Donald Justice to C#65533;sar Vallejo. We also see contemporary poets responding to their peers with the same intriguing mix of admiration and impatience. Whether they offer approbation or reproof, the pleasures of a jazz riff or a completely different perspective, these remarkable poems are not only engaging themselves but also capable of casting surprising new light on the poems that inspired them.

"A visual treat as well as a literary one...for gardeners and garden lovers, connoisseurs of botanical illustration, and those who seek a deeper understanding of the life and work of Emily Dickinson." --The Wall Street Journal Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener--sending fresh bouquets to friends, including pressed flowers in her letters, and studying botany at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke. At her family home, she tended both a small glass conservatory and a flower garden.   In Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life, award-winning author Marta McDowell explores Dickinson's deep passion for plants and how it inspired and informed her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, the book reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson's poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, McDowell offers an enchanting new perspective on one of America's most celebrated but enigmatic literary figures.

Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by the narrator for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m." The title Good Poems comes from common literary parlance. For writers, it's enough to refer to somebody having written a good poem. Somebody else can worry about greatness. Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" is a good poem, and so is James Wright's "A Blessing." Regular people love those poems. People read them aloud at weddings, people send them by e-mail. Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.

Haiku in English is an anthology of more than 800 brilliantly chosen poems that were originally written in English by over 200 poets from around the world. Although haiku originated as a Japanese art form, it has found a welcome home in the English-speaking world. This collection tells the story for the first time of Anglophone haiku, charting its evolution over the last hundred years and placing it within its historical and literary context.

"They took the road in Waycross Georgia / Skipped over the tracks in East St. Louis / Took the bus from Holly Springs / Hitched a ride from Gee's Bend / Took the long way through Memphis / The third deck down from Trinidad / A wrench of the heart from Goree Island / A wrench of the heart from Goree Island / To a place called Harlem." So begins this exquisite poem about the poet's childhood home. With a few deft strokes, Myers and Myers paint a picture of a cradle of American culture. The text calls on all Walter's powers as a narrative writer, a poet, and historian, as it moves from the ancient history of the people of Harlem, through their traditions of family, home, and religion, to their turn of the century Renaisaance and their contemporary despairs, joys, and hopes. A truly remarkable book.

Acclaimed writer Walter Dean Myers celebrates the people of Harlem with these powerful and soulful first-person poems in the voices of the residents who make up the legendary neighborhood: basketball players, teachers, mail carriers, jazz artists, maids, veterans, nannies, students, and more. Exhilarating and electric, these poems capture the energy and resilience of a neighborhood and a people.

Seventy lighthearted poems, selected for both popularity and literary quality, cover a wide range of subjects: books, words, imagination, the beauty of the natural world, travel, adventure, play, and, of course, love and friendship. Features an incredible array of poets, from Lewis Carroll and Ernest Lawrence Thayer to Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash.

Throughout history, Japanese women have excelled in poetry - from the folk songs of the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) compiled in 712 and the court poetry of the 9th to the 14th centuries, on through the age of haikai and kanshi to the 19th century, into the contemporary period when books of women's poems have created a sensation.This anthology presents examples of the work of more than 100 Japanese women poets, arranged chronologically, and of all the major verse forms: choka, tanka, haikai (haiku), kanshi (verse written in Chinese), and free verse. The poems describe not just seasonal changes and the vagaries of love - which form the thematic core of traditional Japanese poetry - but also the devastations of war, childbirth, conflicts between child-rearing and work, experiences as refugees, experiences as non-Japanese residents in Japan, and more.Sections of poetry open with headnotes, and the editor has provided explanations of terms and references for those unfamiliar with the Japanese language. Other useful tools include a glossary of poetic terms, a chronology, and a bibliography that points the reader toward other works by and about these poets. There is no comparable collection available in English.Students and anyone who appreciates poetry and Japanese culture will treasure this magnificent anthology. Editor and translator Hiroaki Sato is a past winner of the PEN America translator prize and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission's 1999 literary translation award.

A haunting and intimately observed new collection from David St. John, a poet of soaring imagination and passionate candor In The Last Troubadour, David St. John has given us a collection of new and selected poems of astonishing beauty, precise and keenly observed but also touched with sensuality and deep feeling. Nothing is too small to escape notice (in "Guitar" St. John reflects on the beauty of that word) or too large to be explored-the suicide of a friend, the illness of a lover, or the texture of longing and desire. A sharp observer of landscapes within and without, St. John directs his empathetic gaze and vivid, inventive voice to investigating both the darkest and the most inspiring parts of being human, the small moments between friends and lovers as well as the groundswells that alter lives.  At times lyrical, sometimes conversational, occasionally wry and playful, St. John's poetry reveals an expansive vision animated by "intimacy and subtlety, and by a disturbing force, the work of an urgent sensibility and a true ear." (W.S. Merwin) The beauty, music, and artistry of David St. John's widely admired work is fully on display in this masterful collection.

"Berry has become ever more prophetic . . . In the Sabbaths of 2005-08 published here, Berry angrily mourns the degradation of the nation wrought by destruction of the land and the pursuit of wealth and power. He says that we must prepare to live without hope for a while, though in the very first of the Sabbaths, he prays not to lose love along with hope: 'Help me, please, to carry / this candle against the wind.' Despite anger and bitterness, he often recalls and teaches the beauty and propriety of creation, too. If he is a Jeremiah, he is also a David the psalmist." --Booklist No one writes like Wendell Berry. Whether essay, novel, story, or poem, his inimitable voice rings true, as natural as the land he has farmed in Kentucky for over 40 years. Following the widely praised Given, this new collection offers a masterful blend of epigrams, elegies, lyrics, and letters, with the occasional short love poem. Alternately amused, outraged, and resigned, Berry's welcome voice is the constant in this varied mix. The book concludes with a new sequence of Sabbath poems, works that have spawned from Berry's Sunday morning walks of meditation and observation. Berry's themes are reflections of his life: friends, family, the farm, the nature around us as well as within. He speaks strongly for himself and sometimes for the lost heart of the country. As he has borne witness to the world for eight decades, what he offers us now in this collection of poems is of incomparable value.

In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, Nikki Giovanni has earned the reputation as one of America's most celebrated and contoversial writers.Now, she presents a stunning collection of love poems that includes more than twenty new works. From the revolutionary "Seduction" to the tender new poem, "Just a Simple Declaration of Love," from the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet" to the elegiac "All Eyez on U," written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered. Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems expresses notions of love in ways that are delightfully unexpected. Articulating in sensuous verse what we know only instinctively, Nikki Giovanni once again confirms her place as one of our nations's most distinguished poets and powerful truth-tellers. In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, starting with her explosive early years in the Black Rights Movement, Nikki Giovanni has earned a reputation as one of America's most celebrated and controversial writers. Her mind-speaking work has made her a universal favorite and a number-one best-seller.The love poems-the revolutionary "Seduction," the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet," and the tender "My House" to name just a few-are among the most beloved of all Nikki Giovanni's works. Now, Love Poems brings together these and other favorites with over twenty new poems. Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems will once again confirm Nikki Giovanni's place among the country's most renowned poets and truth tellers.

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This collection of Jidi Majia's poetry in Chinese and Nuosu (a lesser-spoken language in China, though there are around two and a half million speakers) has been translated into the three strands of the Scots language: Lallans by Stuart Paterson, Doric by Sheena Blackhall and Shetlandic by Christine de Luca. These translations will be face-to-face with an English translation by the eminent translator from Chinese, Denis Mair, who will also provide a preface on the context of Jidi Majia's heritage and poetry.Jidi Majia's Scots translators have undoubtedly brought his vitality into alignment with the power of the Scots tongues, as does Denis Mair's excellent and erudite rendering into English. Aimed at two linguistic communities and coming from two linguistic communities at the other side of the planet, this collection presents a perfect symmetry in a globalized world where we need a dialogue not only between the powerful but also and perhaps even more rewardingly between the local and marginalized. The infinite is often to be encountered in the circumscribed.

The inspiration for the iconic musical Cats, T. S. Eliot's classic and delightful collection of poetry about cats, with whimsical illustrations by Edward Gorey. These lovable cat poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and adults alike. This collection is a curious and artful homage to felines young and old, merry and fierce, small and unmistakably round. Also includes Edward Gorey's charming pen and ink illustrations.

The author, one of the foremost scholars of Dickinson's manuscripts, has prepared a one-volume edition of all extant poems by Emily Dickinson, 1789 poems in all, rendered with Dickinson's spelling, punctuation, and capitilization intact.

36 Poets reinterpret the traditional themes and text of the Passover Haggadah through their own unique lenses. Edited by Los Angeles Poet Rick Lupert (Creator of the Poetry Super Highway) Includes work from Helen Bar-Lev, Lynne Bronstein, Salvatore Buttaci, Howard Camner, Larry Colker, devin davis, Barbara Elovic, Robert Klein Engler, David Gershator, Leslie Halpern, Claudia Handler, Daniel Y. Harris, Elizabeth Iannaci, Marc Jampole, Rachel Kann, Beth Kanter, Peggy Landsman, Michael Levy, Jake Marmer, Ellyn Maybe, Heather McNaugher, Daniel Olivas, Judith Pacht, Jaimes Palacio, Jonathan Penton, Joan Pond, Lanie Shanzyra P. Rebancos, Richard Schiffman, G. David Schwartz, Adam Shechter, Diana Sher, Scott Alixander Sonders, Julia Stein, S. Thomas Summers, Pam Ward and Misha Weidman.

Arab women poets work within one of the oldest literary traditions in the world, yet they are virtually unknown in the West. In assembling this collection, Nathalie Handal has compiled an outstanding, important treasury that introduces the poetry of Arab women living all over the world, writing in Arabic, French, English, and other languages, and including some of the twentieth century's most accomplished poets as well as today's most exciting new voices. Translated by distinguished translators and poets from around the world, The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology showcases the work of 83 poets, among them Etel Adnan, Andre Chedid, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Fadwa Tuqan. With an illuminating introduction by Handal, and extensive biographies of both poets and translators, The Poetry of Arab Women sheds brilliant light on a hitherto under-recognized group of talented poets. 'Hold my hand / and take me to the heart / for I prefer your home, / oh poetry.' - e

Offers brief biographies, critical interpretations, and selected poems by forty-two American, Irish, and English poets from 1892 to 1997, along with recordings of each of the authors reading the works aloud.

i think in spanish i write in english i want to go back to puerto rico, but i wonder if my kink could live in ponce, mayagüez and carolina tengo las venas aculturadas escribo en spanglish abraham in español --from "My Graduation Speech," by Tato Laviera A new collection of bilingual poems from the bestselling editor ofCool Salsa Ten years after the publication of the acclaimedCool Salsa, editor Lori Marie Carlson has brought together a stunning variety of Latino poets for a long-awaited follow-up. Established and familiar names are joined by many new young voices, and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos has written the Introduction. The poets collected here illuminate the difficulty of straddling cultures, languages, and identities. They celebrate food, family, love, and triumph. In English, Spanish, and poetic jumbles of both, they tell us who they are, where they are, and what their hopes are for the future.

Repair is body work in C. K. Williams's sensual poems, but it is also an imaginative treatment of the consternations that interrupt life's easy narrative. National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Williams keeps the self in repair despite love, death, social disorder, and the secrets that separate and join intimates. These forty poems experiment with form but maintain what Alan Williamson has heralded Williams for having so steadily developed from French influences: "the poetry of the sentence".

Tupac Shakur's most intimate and honest thoughts were uncovered only after his death with the instant classic The Rose That Grew from Concrete. His talent was unbounded a raw force that commanded attention and respect. His death was tragic--a violent homage to the power of his voice. His legacy is indomitable--as vibrant and alive today as it has ever been. This collection of deeply personal poetry is a mirror into the legendary artist's enigmatic world and its many contradictions. Written in his own hand from the time he was nineteen, these seventy-two poems embrace his spirit, his energy--and his ultimate message of hope.

DEADPAN, EPIC, AND SEARINGLY CHARISMATIC, A Sand Book chronicles climate change and climate grief, gun violence and bystanderism, state violence and complicity, mourning and ecstasy, sex and love, and the transcendent shock of prophecy, tracking new dimensions of consciousness for our strange and desperate times.

A new edition of the beloved volume by Joy Harjo, one of our foremost Native American poets. First published in 1983 and now considered a classic, She Had Some Horses is a powerful exploration of womanhood's most intimate moments. Joy Harjo's poems speak of women's despair, of their imprisonment and ruin at the hands of men and society, but also of their awakenings, power, and love.

From the winner of the Michael L. Printz Honor Award comes a poetry anthology inspired by poets and artists from around the globe. In the groundbreaking tradition of Heart to Heart, this collection examines the connections between an artist''s work and a poet''s response, putting the artist and poet literally on the same page. With an English translation accompanying each poem in its original language, this is a novel, illuminating way to discover poetry and art together. The poems, most published or translated for the first time in the United States, are surprising and engaging, helping us see art from a fresh perspective. Hailing from thirty-three countries on six continents, the artists and poets included in this collection represent a sampling of the world''s diverse art history, from an ancient Egyptian mummy case to a huge contemporary artwork that takes over an entire museum in Sweden. But they also emphasize the universal appeal of art and poetry. In this kaleidoscope of voices and visions, seeing a painting through another person''s eyes and understanding a stranger''s point of view, shows how similar we all are.   REVIEWS:   BOOKLIST STARRED: Following a similar format to her 2002 Printz Honor Book, Heart to Heart, Greenberg offers another anthology of accomplished poems inspired by artworks. In this volume, Greenberg extends the book''s geographical reach beyond the U.S., bringing together the work of poets and artists from around the globe. As in her Heart to Heart, the poems are grouped loosely into categories, defined in Greenberg''s inspirational introduction. Some tell stories; some speak in the voice of an object in the artwork; some explore the interaction between a viewer and an art object; and some focus on the elements of an artwork''s composition. Each spread features a poem in its original language, the English translation, and an artwork, usually from the same country or culture as the poem. With few exceptions, the reproductions of the art, which ranges from ancient to contemporary work, are sharp and clear, and the moving, often startling poems invite readers to savor the words and then look closely art each image. Teen will easily connect with the poems'' universal themes, including identity, childhood memories, nature''s mysterious power, and the powerful emotions and experiences that link us all. Biographical information about both poets and the artists concludes this welcome title, which makes a natural partner to Naomi Shihab Nye''s This Same Sky (1992). -Booklist, starred review   Children''s Literature--A great introduction to the study of cultural arts is through ekphrasis: poetry inspired by art. This is a terrific way to expose anyone to multiple foreign languages and different types of artifacts. Thirty-three countries are represented from six continents to bring together an extraordinary variety of art and poetry. Poems are shown in their native language--and how often does anyone get to compare written Swedish to Navajo? There is also an astounding assortment of art, from classic paintings such as Botticelli''s Portrait of a Young Man, and Matisse''s Woman in Blue, to Mexican Musicians, made of ceramic and painted wooden figurines, and a mixed media piece entitled The Malmo Experience by Ernesto Neto. The book has four sections determined by the contents of each poem: "Stories," "Voices," "Expressions," and "Impressions." "Stories" includes poems that tell a story about what is occurring in the art. "Voices" narrates the poem from the subject''s point of view. "Expressions" is the bond between the viewer and the art, and "Impressions" is the poet''s description of the art. The layout of every page displays both poems and its matching artwork for the best and easiest way to comprehend all pieces as one. There are even biographies of the artists, poets, and translators, as well as a labeled world map to further appreciate the work and diversity that made this book. Reviewer: Renee Farrah   Alan Review--In her previous anthology, Heart to Heart, Jan Greenberg collected American poems inspired by works of art. Side by Side continues this tradition from a global perspective. Works of art are reprinted and paired with poetry inspired by the art. The poems are printed both in their original language and in English translation. The poetry and art collected are grouped into chapters: Stories, Voices, Expressions, and Impressions. Additionally, the book contains brief biographies of the artists, authors, and translators, as well as a map of the world identifying the countries reflected in the collection Side by Side is an excellent addition to any classroom or library. It is useful first as a book of fine poetry but also as a supplement to multicultural studies and as a model for the use of art as a prompt for writing. Reviewer: F. Todd Goodson School Library Journal--Gr 6 Up- Continuing in the vein of Heart to Heart (Abrams, 2001), Greenberg invited poets from around the world to identify a work of art and create a poem about it. In doing so, she not only gathered poetry and art, but also connects readers to global cultures and traditions. Many of the selections were written in languages other than English, and the original and translated poems share center stage, side by side, with the artwork that inspired the verse. This stellar anthology is arranged in four categories. In "Stories," the poet looks at art and imagines a story. In "Voices," the poet speaks as a subject depicted in the poem; "Expressions" explores the process of looking at, asking questions, and interpreting the art, and in "Impressions," the poet describes the artwork and elements of the composition. The careful arrangement seamlessly draws readers'' focus to the themes of art and literature, as in Günter Kunert''s poem "Der Schre i/The Scream" (translated by Gerald Chapple) about Edvard Munch''s painting. Poets and artists who are familiar to Western readers, such as Pat Mora, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, appear side by side with poets and artists who are less widely recognized. The book includes biographies of all the poets, translators, and artists and a world map that identifies each contributor''s native country. This sophisticated book is ideal for literature, art, and foreign-language curricula. It creates cultural bridges and celebrates the genius of inspired translation.-Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI

Nancy Willard has put together a diverse collection to lead young readers into poetry. From Emily Dickinson to William Carlos Williams; from Anonymous to Elizabeth Bishop; from William Blake to previously unpublished authors -- this energetic selection will give kids a multitude of ways to use poetry in their journey through life. Young adults will find relevance to their own lives, new ways to dream, and poems to enjoy just for fun.

Uniting the voices of thirty master poets, To a Nightingale traces the presence of literature's most celebrated bird from Sappho's fragments to the verse of Borges. The collection reveals a time-honored, poetic discussion of grief, solitude, beauty, song, and artistic expression--a discussion that moved history's greatest literary minds to create their greatest works. As Keats writes in his famous ode: Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird...The voice I hear this passing night was heard in ancient days. His sentiment resounds throughout this book, echoing through the words of Milton, Shakespeare, Virgil, and other luminaries whose work directed the course of world literature. Bound by a common reverence for the nightingale's unchanging music, each author seems to speak intimately to the other, their sentiments resonating beautifully despite the passage of centuries. To a Nightingale is a powerful homage that inspires appreciation not only for the nightingale herself, but also for the poets who collectively made her song sacred to us. This book will appeal to anyone seeking a glimpse into the world of celebrated poetry.

Playfulness, spare elegance, and wit epitomize the poetry of Billy Collins. With his distinct voice and accessible language, America’s two-term Poet Laureate has opened the door to poetry for countless people for whom it might otherwise remain closed. Like the present book’s title, Collins’s poems are filled with mischief, humor, and irony, “Poetry speaks to all people, it is said, but here I would like to address / only those in my own time zone”–but also with quiet observation, intense wonder, and a reverence for the everyday: “The birds are in their trees, / the toast is in the toaster, / and the poets are at their windows. / They are at their windows in every section of the tangerine of earth–the Chinese poets looking up at the moon, / the American poets gazing out / at the pink and blue ribbons of sunrise.” Through simple language, Collins shows that good poetry doesn’t have to be obscure or incomprehensible, qualities that are perhaps the real trouble with most “serious” poetry: “By now, it should go without saying / that what the oven is to the baker / and the berry-stained blouse to the drycleaner / so the window is to the poet.” In this dazzling new collection, his first in three years, Collins explores boyhood, jazz, love, the passage of time, and, of course, writing–themes familiar to Collins’s fans but made new here. Gorgeous, funny, and deeply empathetic, Billy Collins’s poetry is a window through which we see our lives as if for the first time.

Containing images from the American television series of the same name, this is a collection of 80 contemporary poems by writers ranging from Nobel Prize-winners to rock-and-rollers, Beats, cowboy poets, rappers and Jimmy Carter. Brief biographies of the poets are included.

For Valentine’s Day 1986, Ted Kooser wrote “Pocket Poem” and sent the tender, thoughtful composition to fifty women friends, starting an annual tradition that would persist for the next twenty-one years. Printed on postcards, the poems were mailed to a list of recipients that eventually grew to more than 2,500 women all over the United States. Valentines collects Kooser’s twenty-two years of Valentine’s Day poems, complemented with illustrations by Robert Hanna and a new poem appearing for the first time. nbsp; Kooser’s valentine poems encompass all the facets of the holiday: the traditional hearts and candy, the brilliance and purity of love, the quiet beauty of friendship, and the bittersweetness of longing. Some of the poems use the word valentine, others do not, but there is never any doubt as to the purpose of Kooser’s creations.

Shel Silverstein, the New York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound. Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings stretches the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages. This is a collection that belongs on everyone's bookshelf. Makes a great gift for special occasions such as holidays, birthdays, and graduation. And don't miss Runny Babbit Returns, the new book by Shel Silverstein!  

Recaptures the astonishing outpouring of poetry in response to the Civil War ""Words for the Hour"" presents a readable and illuminating account of the Civil War, told through the words of poets North and South. From bathos to profound philosophical meditation and sorrow, the range of these poems illuminates the complexity of their era while also revealing the continuing power of this turning point in American history to speak to readers in the present day. The volume is divided into three parts, each offering a different perspective on the poetry generated by the war. Part I samples the extraordinary range of poems written immediately preceding and during the war and published in popular periodicals, providing a kind of poetic newspaper account as one might have read it then - from the early days of optimistically heralded victory on both sides, through the mounting casualties and brutal deaths of the long middle years, to the war's conclusion and President Lincoln's assassination. Viewing the struggle from many different vantage points gives the reader access to the ways that people from various backgrounds experienced the trajectory of the war. Civilians and soldiers, free blacks and proponents of slavery, women and men from Massachusetts and Virginia and from recently admitted states and barely developed territories, writers with their eyes on the national political stage and those focused on personal domestic issues: these are the multiple voices of America responding to the war. Part II includes substantial selections of poems by writers who published extensively in response to the conflict, providing more complex and comprehensive perceptions of the war. These poets include not just well-known figures such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and John Greenleaf Whittier, but also African American poets George Moses Horton and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Southern poets Henry Timrod and Sarah Piatt. Part III offers poems by two poets who did not publish during their lifetimes, but had strong imaginative responses to the conflict, thus giving a sense of the long reach of the war as a defining national experience. One of these two poets (Emily Dickinson) is now renowned while the other (Obadiah Ethelbert Baker) is first published in this volume. ""Words for the Hour"" is indeed ""new"" among anthologies of Civil War poetry not only in its wide range of poems by popular, anonymous, and now canonical poets but also in its informational apparatus. A historical timeline listing major battles and events of the war begins the volume, and historical photographs or lithographs introduce each section of poems. The book also includes a substantial introduction, a glossary of important names and terminology relevant to understanding the poems, and biographical sketches for all the poets whose work is included.

Words Under the Words gathers into a single volume the finest poems by one of the most exciting, accessible poets in America today. This long-awaited collection draws from Naomi Shihab Nye's three critically acclaimed books: Different Ways to Pray, Yellow Glove, and National Poetry Series winner, Hugging the Jukebox.

From the editors of the successful anthologies "The Hell With Love" and "Kiss Off" comes a third collection of poetry celebrating commitment, passion, and everlasting love. Two-color text.