Poetry: Overview
Your guide to all things poetical, including links to the library catalog, web sites about poetry, connections to poetry happenings locally, and links to Poets in the Libraries readings.
Poetry in Action
Use these tabs to find online assistance and information about local poets.
Includes 
A series of readings at each of the library branches with featured poets and readings by community poets who live nearby. The series is hosted by Albuquerque Poet Laureate Mary Oishi, with library staff talking about the history and features of each library.
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Poetry PlayhouseA place for poetry and play. Featuring visiting poets, writing workshops and classes, retreats, readings, and events.
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Poet-Heart - Poetry Group in AlbuquerquePoetry group through meetup.com with a cooperative bulletin board for events, writer's groups, slams, conventions, and "madcap adventures."
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ABQ SlamsABQSlams provides support and opportunities as well as publicizes events, educational programming through Albuquerque Public Schools, the Albuquerque correctional system and UNM.
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New Mexico State Poetry SocietyMission is to foster the appreciation and creation of poetry in the state of New Mexico. Chapters of the Society choose their own format and activities, which range from workshops, writing activities, round-robins, and youth programs.
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Poet's Market 2020 by The Most Trusted Guide to Publishing Poetry! Want to get your poetry published? There's no better tool for making it happen than Poet's Market 2020, which includes hundreds of publishing opportunities specifically for poets, including listings for book and chapbook publishers, print and online poetry publications, contests, and more. These listings include contact information, submission preferences, insider tips on what specific editors want, and--when offered--payment information. In addition to the completely updated listings, the 33nd edition of Poet's Market offers articles devoted to the craft and business of poetry, including the art of finishing a poem, ways to promote your new book, habits of highly productive poets, and more.
Books on Writing Poetry for All Ages
Books on Writing Poetry
For Kids and Teens
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Immersed in Verse by Poetry's hip, poetry's hot, and poetry's a blast with this cool, contemporary guide created in the same entertaining style as the popular In Print! Kids instinctively love poetry--its rhythm, its rhymes, and its playful transformation of ordinary language. And these days, such cutting-edge, youthful forms as rap, hip-hop, and slams have made poetry more relevant than ever. With its fun facts, exciting writing activities, and words of encouragement from a respected professional, Immersed in Verse nurtures the nascent poet in every child. Best of all, these awe-inspiring ideas have nothing in common with blah school assignments. Instead, youngsters rearrange their favorite (or least favorite) poems; start their own poetry workshop; present #147;open mike night” in the basement; and record their friends reciting. Along the way, they'll open more than a few #147;poet's toolboxes.” They'll explore the wonderful world of words and learn about attitude, equipment, techniques (including #147;metaphors be with you”), different styles of verse, revising your writing, getting published, and performing.nbsp; Allan Wolf has served as the educational director for the national touring company Poetry Alive! His books include The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems about Our Parts and New Found Land. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and three children. A Selection of the Children's Book of the Month Club. -
Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry by Have you ever tried to write a poem about a pizza? How about a pig? How about a pigeon, penguin, potato, Ping-Pong, parrot, puppy, pelican, porcupine, pie, pachyderm, or your parents? Jack Prelutsky has written more than one thousand poems about all of these things--and many others. In this book he gives you the inside scoop on writing poetry and shows you how you can turn your own experiences and stories about your family, your pets, and your friends into poems. He offers tips, advice, and secrets about writing and provides some fun exercises to help you get started (or unstuck). You'll also get a behind-the-scenes look at the ingredients of some of his most popular poems. If you are a poet, want to be a poet, or if you have to write a poem for homework and you just need some help, then this is the book for you! -
Poetry Matters by Maybe you've heard before that poetry is magic, and it made you roll your eyes, but I believe it's true. Poetry matters. At the most important moments, when everyone else is silent, poetry rises to speak. I wrote this book to help you write poems and to give practical ideas for making your poems sound the way you want them to sound. We're not going to smash poems up into the tiniest pieces. This book is about writing poetry, not analyzing it. I want this book to help you have more wonderful. moments in the poetry you write. I want you to feel the power of poetry. it's my hope that through this book you will discover lots of ways to make your poems shine, sing, soar... -- Ralph Fletcher -
Sophie and Sadie Build a Sonnet by Friends Sophie and Sadie learn how to write sonnets with the help of their after-school program teacher. -
How to Write a Poem by All successful people are effective communicators. This series forms a complete set of how-to-references that give young people a solid grounding and practical pointers in all areas of spoken and written communications. Includes a bibliography, a glossary, and an index. -
Catch Your Breath by "Introduces and defines essential elements of writing poetry accompanied by compelling writing prompts for practicing new skills. Real-life author bios and excerpts enhance skills and understanding"-- -
What Is Poetry?: the Essential Guide to Reading and Writing Poems by Celebrated poet and critic Michael Rosen takes readers on a whirlwind tour exploring what poems are, what they can do, and the joys of reading and writing them. For thousands of years, people have been writing poetry. But what is poetry? Award-winning wordsmith Michael Rosen has spent decades thinking about that question, and in this helpful guide he shares his insights with humor, knowledge, and appreciation -- appreciation for poetry and appreciation for twenty-first-century children embarking on their own poetic journeys. Young readers are invited to join him on a welcoming exploration of the British poetic canon, replete with personal insights into what the renowned poet thinks about as he writes and advice on writing their own poetry. When he's finished, readers will be able to say with confidence: this is poetry. Included in this accessible handbook are writing tips, analyses of classic poems, and an appendix of poets and useful websites.
For Adults
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Write a Poem, Save Your Life by "Join Heller on her quest to help save the world, one poet at a time." -- from the foreword by Susan G. Wooldridge Write a Poem, Save Your Life helps writers of all ages and experience levels navigate their way through all aspects of life. With writing prompts, tools, encouragement, and moving student examples, Meredith Heller gently guides us in the art of using poetry to figure out who we are and what matters to us and to heal the deeper issues many of us face, such as depression, addiction, health and body image issues, low self-esteem, trauma, gender and sexual identity issues, and home and family problems. Along the way, we learn that writing poems helps us believe in ourselves, make positive life choices, and find direction, purpose, and meaning. -
Hewitt's Guide to Slam Poetry and Poetry Slam by All successful people are effective communicators. This series forms a complete set of how-to-references that give young people a solid grounding and practical pointers in all areas of spoken and written communications. Includes a bibliography, a glossary, and an index. -
Ordinary Genius by "The creative process is just that," maintains Kim Addonizio. "Not a means to an end, but an ongoing participation." A widely acclaimed poet and finalist for the National Book Award, Addonizio meditates on her own process as she encourages writers to explore both their personal and political worlds, to seek inspiration from poets new and old, and to discover the rich poetic resources of the Internet. Lively, accessible, and informative, Ordinary Genius?provides wisdom gleaned through personal experience and offers a heady variety of writing exercises. Chapters on gender, addiction, race and class, metaphor and line invite each individual writer to find and to hone his or her unique voice. This is the perfect book for both experienced writers and beginners eager to glimpse the angel of poetry. -
The Ode Less Travelled by I have a dark and dreadful secret. I write poetry... I believe poetry is a primal impulse within all of us. I believe we are all capable of it and furthermore that a small, often ignored corner of us positively yearns to try it. Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled Stephen Fry believes that if one can speak and read English, one can write poetry. Many of us have never been taught to read or write poetry and think of it as a mysterious and intimidating form. Or, if we have been taught, we remember uncomfortable silence when an English teacher invited the class to "respond" to a poem. In The Ode Less Travelled, Fry sets out to correct this problem by giving aspiring poets the tools and confidence they need to write poetry for pleasure.Fry is a wonderfully engaging teacher and writer of poetry himself, and he explains the various elements of poetry in simple terms, without condescension. His enjoyable exercises and witty insights introduce the concepts of Metre, Rhyme, Form, Diction, and Poetics. Aspiring poets will learn to write a sonnet, on ode, a villanelle, a ballad, and a haiku, among others. Along the way, he introduces us to poets we've heard of, but never read. The Ode Less Travelledis a lively celebration of poetry that makes even the most reluctant reader want to pick up a pencil and give it a try. BACKCOVER: Advanced Praise: Delightfully erudite, charming and soundly pedagogical guide to poetic form
Fry has created an invaluable and highly enjoyable reference book. Publishers Weekly A smart, sane and entertaining return to the basics
If you like Frys comic manner
this book has a lot of charm
People entirely fresh to the subject could do worse than stick with his cheerful leadership. The Telegraph(UK)
intelligent and informative, a worthy enterprise well executed. Observer(UK) "If you learn how to write a sonnet, and Fry shows you how, you may or may not make a poem. But you will unlock the stored wisdom of the form itself." Grey Gowrie, The Spectator(UK)
intelligent and informative, a worthy enterprise well executed. Observer(UK) -
Rules for the Dance by "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance," in the case of Oliver's brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work - and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem's narrative and its ideas." -
The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Recently appointed as the new U. S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser has been writing and publishing poetry for more than forty years. In the pages of The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Kooser brings those decades of experience to bear. Here are tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets—aspiring or practicing—can use to hone their craft, perhaps into art. Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry’s ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts. Much more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of a long and enlightening conversation with a wise and patient old friend—a friend who is willing to share everything he’s learned about the art he’s spent a lifetime learning to execute so well. -
Singing School by Quick, joyful, and playfully astringent, with surprising comparisons and examples, this collection takes an unconventional approach to the art of poetry. Instead of rules, theories, or recipes, emphasizes ways to learn from great work: studying magnificent, monumentally enduring poems and how they are made— in terms borrowed from the “singing school” of William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium.” -
Lessons from a Desperado Poet by 118 tips from America's Cowboy Poet on how to carve a living out of thin air and live with yourself while you do it "Probably the nation's most successful living poet." New York TimesPart memoir, part how-to, all Baxter Black, Lessons from a Desperado Poet is a humorous, witty take on making a living by doing the right thing and trying everything. According to Baxter Black, success "does not require a genius; it just requires the persistence of a glacier. Remember, often it's not ability that gets you ahead, it's reliability. The world is run by those who show up." A mind-tickling romp through the formation, fermentation, and fruition of the author's career as a poet in a country where publishing poetry is "practically illegal," Lessons from a Desperado Poet boldly injects a poem now and again when it is relevant, just to prove a point It's instructional for the entrepreneur, inspirational for the ambitious, and entertaining for the teeming masses. Since it is also a story of continuously overcoming the odds, Lessons from a Desperado Poet leaves a trail of self-improvement and motivational tortilla crumbs that readers will follow with delight before, that is, squirreling them away in their own cerebral pockets for later use." -
You, Too, Could Write a Poem by A collection of reviews and essays by David Orr, the New York Times poetry columnist and one of the most respected critics in America today, his best work of the past fifteen years in one place Poetry is never more vital, meaningful, or accessible than in the hands of David Orr. In the pieces collected here, most of them written originally for the New York Times, Orr is at his rigorous, conversational, and edifying best. Whether he is considering the careers of contemporary masters, such as Louise Gl#65533;ck or Frederick Seidel, sizing up younger American poets, like Matthea Harvey and Matthew Zapruder, or even turning his attention to celebrities and public figures, namely Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Fry, when they choose to wade into the hotly contested waters of the poetry world, Orr is never any less than fully persuasive in arguing what makes a poem or poet great--or not. After all, as Orr points out in his introduction, "Poetry is a lot like America, in the sense that liking all of it means that you probably shouldn't be trusted with money, or scissors." Orr's prose is devoted to common sense and clarity, and, in every case, he brings to bear an impeccable ear, an openhandedness of spirit, and a deep wealth of technical knowledge--to say nothing of his shrewd sense of humor. As pleasurable as it is informative, Orr's journalism represents a high watermark in the public discussion of literature. You, Too, Could Write a Poem is at heart a love note to poetry itself. From the Trade Paperback edition.Call Number: eBook -
How Poems Get Made by Why does a great lyric poem ask to be reread, even after we know it by heart? In How Poems Get Made, acclaimed poet and critic James Longenbach answers this question by discussing a wide range of exemplary poems, from Shakespeare through Blake, Dickinson, and Moore, to a variety of poets making poems today. In each chapter of How Poems Get Made, Longenbach examines a specific aspect of the poetic medium--including Diction, Syntax, Rhythm, Echo, Figure, and Tone--and shows how a poet may manipulate these most basic elements to bring a poem to life. -
Making of a Poem by "Concise, learned, revisionary... should enrich the passionate conversation about poetic forms for years to come."-- Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry Two of our foremost poets provide here a lucid, straightforward primer that "looks squarely at some of the headaches and mysteries of poetic form": a book for readers who have always felt that an understanding of form (sonnet, ballad, villanelle, sestina, among others) would enhance their appreciation of poetry. Tracing "the exuberant history of forms," they devote one chapter to each form, offering explanation, close reading, and a rich selection of examplars that amply demonstrate the power and possibility of that form.
Recent Poetry Titles for All Ages
New Poetry Titles
For Kids and Teens
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Free at Last by This lyrical celebration of Juneteenth, deeply rooted in Black American history, spans centuries and reverberates loudly and proudly today. After 300 years of forced bondage; hands bound, descendants of Africa picked up their souls--all that they owned-- leaving shackles where they fell on the ground, headed for the nearest resting place to be found. Deeply emotional, evocative free verse by poet and activist Sojourner Kincaid Rolle traces the solemnity and celebration of Juneteenth from its 1865 origins in Galveston, Texas to contemporary observances all over the United States. This is an ode to the strength of Black Americans and a call to remember and honor a holiday whose importance reverberates far beyond the borders of Texas. -
Zoobilations! by Discover the poetry of the animal kingdom in this seriously silly picture book full of clever puns and curious illustrations by celebrated poet Douglas Florian. Come horse around and live out your ele-phant-asies in this utterly original collection of animal poems. From the s t r e t c h of a giraffe's neck to the smooth skin of a naked mole rat, readers will see animals in a whole new way--and laugh like hyenas as they turn each pun-filled page. -
Serengeti by Award-winning science poetry master Leslie Bulion presents a lyrical salute to Africa's Serengeti Plain, one of the most spectacular and productive ecosystems on Earth. Leslie Bulion, a virtuoso science poet, has created a portrait of the rainy season on East Africa's southern Serengeti Plain, offering young readers a compelling look at an ecosystem in motion. Using a series of interconnected verses inspired by an East African Swahili poem form - the utendi - Bulion's cadences and rhythmic lines mimic the web of life in the Serengeti, following the great migration of wildebeest, zebras, and others into and then out of the vast short-grass plain. Lush, evocative gouache illustrations by Becca Stadtlander showcase the grandeur of this immense and complex ecosystem and provide close-up details of its wildlife inhabitants. Scientific notes on each spread and comprehensive back matter material offer more specifics. This, paired with Bulion's brilliant poetic form, make the book ideal for cross-curricular learning. Also from Leslie Bulion: Amphibian Acrobats At the Sea Floor Café Leaf Litter Critters Random Body Parts Spi-Ku Superlative Birds -
Wave by A coming-of-age novel in verse set in 1980s Southern California, about a Persian American girl who rides the waves, falls, and finds her way back to the shore Thirteen-year-old Ava loves to surf and to sing. Singing and reading Rumi poems settle her mild OCD, and catching waves with her best friend, Phoenix, lets her fit in--her olive skin looks tan, not foreign. But then Ava has to spend the summer before ninth grade volunteering at the hospital, to follow in her single mother's footsteps to become a doctor. And when Phoenix's past lymphoma surges back, not even surfing, singing, or poetry can keep them afloat, threatening Ava's hold on the one place and the one person that make her feel like she belongs. With ocean-like rhythm and lyricism, Wave is about a girl who rides the waves, tumbles, and finds her way back to the shore.Call Number: YA -
Ain't Burned All the Bright by Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds. Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin had a mind-meld. And they decided to tackle it, in one fell swoop, in about ten sentences, and 300 pages of art, this piece, this contemplation-manifesto-fierce-vulnerable-gorgeous-terrifying-WhatIsWrongWithHumans-hope-filled-hopeful-searing-Eye-Poppingly-Illustrated-tender-heartbreaking-how-The-HECK-did-They-Come-UP-with-This project about oxygen. And all of the symbolism attached to that word, especially NOW. And so for anyone who didn't really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you'll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is.Call Number: YA -
Out of This World by This companion to Earth Verse: Haiku from the Ground Up soars into space with a perfect fusion of poetry and science, accompanied by breathtaking illustrations. one minuscule speck grows into the universe a mind-boggling birth This stunning meeting of poetic form and luminous artwork transports us out of the bounds of Earth, past a lunar eclipse, beyond the orbiting planets, and into glowing galaxies and twinkling constellations. Sally M. Walker uses her award-winning skill as a writer of nonfiction to explore space through clever haiku, accompanied by narrative explanations of wonders that are out of this world. Illustrator Matthew Trueman imagines the explosive Big Bang and awe-inspiring meteor showers in spectacular views that no telescope could offer. Comprehensive, well-researched back matter further explores such topics as constellations and astronomers, the birth of the universe, stars, the solar system, moons and eclipses, asteroids, meteors, and comets, as well as a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and online resources for readers with an eye to what lies beyond Earth. -
The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics by "Thoughtful and thought-provoking, this book will plant the seeds of environmental activism in young readers." --Kirkus (starred review) "I encourage everyone to read this book." --Dr. Jane Goodall There's no doubt about it--plastic is in almost everything. From our phones and computers to our toys and utensils, plastic is everywhere. But the amount of plastic we throw away is hurting the health of our planet. With The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics, readers will be fascinated as they learn about the growing plastic problem and meet just a few of the young activists who are standing up and speaking out for change. You'll hear about the "Be Straw Free" campaign, started by nine-year-old Milo Cress. You'll discover how scientists are using jellyfish snot and munching, crunching caterpillars to break down plastic pollution faster. You'll meet Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López, the eight-year-old girl turning old plastic bottles into solar heaters. And there are many more incredible kids here, not much older than our readers, who will inspire us all to change the way we think about plastic! With an introduction from Milo Cress and bright, colorful illustrations from Christiane Engel, this collection of brilliant, lyrical nonfiction poems by award-winning author Susan Hood highlights the threat of plastic and the kids who are fighting for change to save our planet. Includes extensive backmatter with a timeline, author's note, further resources, and more. -
Sakamoto's Swim Club by The inspirational and little-known story of a dedicated teacher who coached Hawaiian swimmers all the way to the Olympics, beautifully told in simple rhyme. When the children of workers on a 1930s Maui sugar plantation were chased away from playing in the nearby irrigation ditches, local science teacher Soichi Sakamoto began training them how to swim. Sakamoto devised his own innovative coaching techniques, building their strength and endurance. The children formed a swim club and began to dominate in swimming events around the world. And then one day, the proud Sakamoto saw an impossible dream come true - Olympic gold! -
Sweet People Are Everywhere (Children Around the World Books, Diversity Books) by This beautiful picture book by renowned author Alice Walker focuses on a common thread of the 'sweet people' who can be found all over the world. The poem addresses a young boy getting his first passport, taking the boy - and the reader - on a journey through a series of countries around the globe. The poem is a powerful celebration of humanity and globalism, embodying a generosity of spirit that is inspiring, timely, and timeless. The evocative free verse poem was first published in Walker's 2018 poetry collection Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. -
You Don't Have to Be Everything by Poems to Turn to Again and Again - from Amanda Gorman, Sharon Olds, Kate Baer, and More Created and compiled just for young women, You Don't Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. These unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism. The cast of 68 poets is extraordinary: Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, who read at Joe Biden's inauguration; bestselling authors like Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sharon Olds, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Mary Oliver; Instagram-famous poets including Kate Baer, Melody Lee, and Andrea Gibson; poets who are LGBTQ, poets of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, poets who sing of human experience in ways that are free from conventional ideas of femininity. Illustrated in full color with work by three diverse artists, this book is an inspired gift for daughters and granddaughters--and anyone on the path to becoming themselves. No matter how old you are, it helps to be young when you're coming to life, to be unfinished, a mysterious statement, a journey from star to star. --Joy Ladin, excerpt from "Survival Guide"
For Adults
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Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Black Is King, award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire "The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts."--Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist "Shire is the real thing--fresh, cutting, indisputably alive."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times Mama, I made it / out of your home / alive, raised by / the voices / in my head. With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire's hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life, full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life, full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life, full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed. -
My Grief, the Sun by The highly anticipated debut collection from acclaimed poet Sanna Wani. In Sanna Wani's poems, each verse is ode and elegy. The body is the page, time is a friend, and every voice, a soul. Sharply political and frequently magical, these often-intimate poems reach for everything from Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 film Princess Mononoke to German Orientalist scholarship on early Islam. From concrete to confessional, exegesis to erasure, the Missinnihe river in Canada to the Zabarwan mountains in Kashmir, My Grief, the Sunundoes genre, listens carefully to the planet's breathing, addresses an endless and ineffable you, and promises enough joy and sorrow to keep growing. -
Blood on the Fog by 2021 Golden Poppy Award Winner for Poetry - Chosen by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance 2022 California Book Award Finalist Politically astute, filled with wisdom and great humanity, this is poetry meant to conjure a healing and provoke a confrontation, an invitation to a journey through Black America. "Words are not the revolution itself, Eisen-Martin seems to say, and yet this book disturbed me more than any other I read this year. It reminds me that poetry can rewire our thinking--can actually change our minds--by using nothing like the rote language we're so used to hearing in speech and in prose. It can jolt us out of patterns, back into intelligence."--The New York Times, "The Best Poetry of 2021" A rhapsodic follow-up to Tongo Eisen-Martin's Heaven is All Goodbyes, this collection further explores themes of love and loss, family and faith, refracted through the lens of Black experience. These poems honor intellectual tradition and ancestral knowledge while blazing an entirely new path, recording and replaying the poet's sensory travels through America, from its packed metropolises to desolate anytowns. Radical, outraged, knowing, wry, and deeply humane, these are poems of survival that soar with a vision of collective liberation. Praise for Blood on the Fog: "Continuing the lofty tradition of Langston Hughes, June Jordan, and Amiri Baraka, Tongo Eisen-Martin has emerged on center stage as today's premier revolutionary poet. A master craftsman and a sensitive artist, he reserves his sledgehammer words for the cruelty of imperialism. He should not only be read--he should be studied."--Gerald Horne "In Blood on the Fog, find a poetry of 'swinging type body language' where the swinging swings like Ellington and Ali combined, knocking you out inside and out, and turning you around in this extraordinary book."--Terrance Hayes "Black poetry has got to get its head around the deranged way language and the world expect us to be and live again. Tongo has figured this out, is feeling out how to vein the poem with his own life, and that's why I love his work."--Simone White "This is no precious, immortal-aspirational monologue; no autocrat stone of finality; no poor folks as thought experiments. More fugue than state. More disturbance as the groove. If poems are for anything, I feel like it must be this."--Justin Phillip Reed "Blood on the Fog is the illest artifact of time travel I've ever experienced. Tongo Eisen-Martin takes us to a tomorrow and yesterday where we stand--contorted and mangled--but oh so beautiful, faithful and free."--Kiese Laymon "Whether speaking rhyme in slant, calling forward Medgar Evers, or the spirituality of an oppressed people, Eisen-Martin offers stanza after stanza as a sunrise. Each poem leads us towards our liberation. This means these poems are heavy in their desire to free our current state of stoic apathy. This means Tongo Eisen-Martin's poetic legacy will live forever."--Mahogany L. Browne -
How to Not Be Afraid of Everything by Explores the vulnerable ways we articulate and reckon with fear: fear of intergenerational trauma and the silent, hidden histories of families. What does it mean to grow up in a take-out restaurant, surrounded by food, just a generation after the Great Leap Forward famine in 1958-62? Full of elegy and resilient joy, these poems speak across generations of survival. -
Frank: Sonnets by WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRY WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/VOELCKER AWARD FOR POETRY COLLECTION WINNER OF THE 2021 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR POETRY A resplendent life in sonnets from the author of Four-Legged Girl, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "The sonnet, like poverty, teaches you what you can do / without," Diane Seuss writes in this brilliant, candid work, her most personal collection to date. These poems tell the story of a life at risk of spilling over the edge of the page, from Seuss's working-class childhood in rural Michigan to the dangerous allures of New York City and back again. With sheer virtuosity, Seuss moves nimbly across thought and time, poetry and punk, AIDS and addiction, Christ and motherhood, showing us what we can do, what we can do without, and what we offer to one another when we have nothing left to spare. Like a series of cels on a filmstrip, frank: sonnets captures the magnitude of a life lived honestly, a restless search for some kind of "beauty or relief." Seuss is at the height of her powers, devastatingly astute, austere, and--in a word--frank. -
Tethered to Stars by A Library Journal Best Book of Poetry of 2021 Tethered to Stars inhabits the deductive tongue of astronomy, the oracular throat of astrology, and the living language of loss and desire. With an analytical eye and a lyrical heart, Fady Joudah shifts deftly between the microscope, the telescope, and sometimes even the horoscope. His gaze lingers on the interior space of a lung, on a butterfly poised on a filament, on the moon temple atop Huayna Picchu, on a dismembered live oak. In each lingering, Joudah shares with readers the palimpsest of what makes us human: "We are other worms / for other silk roads." The solemn, the humorous, the erotic, the transcendent--all of it, in Joudah's poems, steeped in the lexicon of the natural world. "When I say honey," says one lover, "I'm asking you whose pollen you contain." "And when I say honey," replies another, "you grip my sweetness / on your life, stigma and anthophile." Teeming with life but tinged with a sublime proximity to death, Tethered to Stars is a collection that flows "between nuance and essentialization," from one of our most acclaimed poets. -
Stay Safe by At the center of this stellar collection are three sisters and their imaginative fear of grief. Their great-uncle was bitten by a shark, their mother has a brain tumor, their neighbor hangs himself from a tree--and to cope with these very real terrors, the oldest sister creates an intimate fantasy world. We hear stories of a mountain lion that slaughters a deer, a transparent body washed up on a beach, a selkie who ventures to shore and becomes their mother: "On land her pelt was heavy / like stewed velvet, so she taught herself / to take it off." The sisters' environment of ocean and sand, forests and farmhouses, forms a lush backdrop to many of these poems. But later, as the speaker ages, we find ourselves in the mountains, in an art museum, in a spacecraft where a recorded voice "has the soft accent of someone only a generation or two removed from Earth." The voice in these poems is the perfect mix of grief and imagination, quiet and explosion.Stay Safe is delicate and extraordinary, a powerful debut. -
A God at the Door by "We are homesick everywhere," writes Tishani Doshi, "even when we're home." With aching empathy, righteous anger, and rebellious humor, A God at the Door calls on the extraordinary minutiae of nature and humanity to redefine belonging and unveil injustice. In an era of pandemic lockdown and brutal politics, these poems make vital space for what must come next-the return of wonder and free movement, and a profound sense of connection to what matters most. From a microscopic cell to flightless birds, to a sumo wrestler and the tree of life, Doshi interrupts the news cycle to pause in grief or delight, to restore power to language. A God at the Door invites the reader on a pilgrimage-one that leads us back to the sacred temple of ourselves. This is an exquisite, generous collection from a poet at the peak of her powers. -
Time Is a Mother by The highly anticipated collection of poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong How else do we return to ourselves but to fold The page so it points to the good part In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother's death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Shifting through memory, and in concert with the themes of his novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong contends with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the cost of being the product of an American war in America. At once vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong's poems circle fragmented lives to find both restoration as well as the epicenter of the break. The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize, and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. These poems represent a more innovative and daring experimentation with language and form, illuminating how the themes we perennially live in and question are truly inexhaustible. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time Is a Mother is a return and a forging forth all at once. -
Playlist for the Apocalypse by Finalist for the 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry A piercing, unflinching new volume offers necessary music for our tumultuous present, from "perhaps the best public poet we have" (Boston Globe). In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America's, and the world's, experiments in democracy. Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or the contemporary efforts of Black Lives Matter, a girls' night clubbing in the shadow of World War II or the doomed nobility of Muhammad Ali's conscious objector stance, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives. Meticulously orchestrated and musical in its forms, Playlist for the Apocalypse collects a dazzling array of voices: an elevator operator simmers with resentment, an octogenarian dances an exuberant mambo, a spring cricket philosophizes with mordant humor on hip hop, critics, and Valentine's Day. Calamity turns all too personal in the book's final section, "Little Book of Woe," which charts a journey from terror to hope as Dove learns to cope with debilitating chronic illness. At turns audaciously playful and grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to catastrophic failures of the human soul. Listen up, the poet says, speaking truth to power; what you'll hear in return is "a lifetime of song." -
In a Time of Distance by In a beautiful and transporting volume of poems, the beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series takes us on a captivating journey from Africa to Greece, London to North America to Mumbai, and back home to Scotland, celebrating people, places, animals, and books. What matters most in life? For Alexander McCall Smith, it is friendship, love, and travel--the themes found throughout his work that have made him a cherished writer the world over. This first collection of McCall Smith's poems reflects on these topics with all his characteristic wit and charm. There are moments of sweeping insight and soaring feeling, and moments that will have you laughing along as they subtly shift your worldview. This inimitable writer shares his distinctively astute and good-natured observations on life, love, and beauty, reminding us of the deep satisfaction that can be found when we open ourselves up to the world with our whole heart, and watch as it takes on a kinder and gentler shape. -
Above the Birch Line by Above the Birch Line reflects a lifetime of observation and experience, and offers glimpses of the loves, aches, and comforts that have accompanied author Pia Taavila-Borsheim along the way. Written primarily in free verse, the poems are imagistic in nature, with an ongoing metaphor of visual representations of nature, especially water. Starting with her childhood and continuing through late adulthood, Taavila-Borsheim ruminates on her parents, travels, marriage, motherhood, and finally, aging and death. -
Gumbo Ya Ya by Gumbo Ya Ya, Aurielle Marie's stunning debut, is a cauldron of hearty poems exploring race, gender, desire, and violence in the lives of Black gxrls, soaring against the backdrop of a contemporary South. These poems are loud, risky, and unapologetically rooted in the glory of Black gxrlhood. The collection opens with a heartrending indictment of injustice. What follows is a striking reimagination of the world, one where no Black gxrl dies "by the barrel of the law" or "for loving another Black gxrl." Part familial archival, part map of Black resistance, Gumbo Ya Ya catalogs the wide gamut of Black life at its intersections, with punching cultural commentary and a poetic voice that holds tenderness and sharpness in tandem. It asks us to chew upon both the rich meat and the tough gristle, and in doing so we walk away more whole than we began and thoroughly satisfied. -
100 Poems to Break Your Heart by 100 of the most moving and inspiring poems of the last 200 years from around the world, a collection that will comfort and enthrall anyone trapped by grief or loneliness, selected by the award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author of How to Read a Poem Implicit in poetry is the idea that we are enriched by heartbreaks, by the recognition and understanding of suffering--not just our own suffering but also the pain of others. We are not so much diminished as enlarged by grief, by our refusal to vanish, or to let others vanish, without leaving a record. And poets are people who are determined to leave a trace in words, to transform oceanic depths of feeling into art that speaks to others. In100 Poems to Break Your Heart,poet and advocate Edward Hirsch selects 100 poems, from the nineteenth century to the present, and illuminates them, unpacking context and references to help the reader fully experience the range of emotion and wisdom within these poems. For anyone trying to process grief, loneliness, or fear, this collection of poetry will be your guide in trying times. -
American Melancholy by A new collection of poetry from an American literary legend, her first in twenty-five years Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistent and inspired witnesses of a shared American history. Oates is perhaps best known for her prodigious output of novels and short stories, many of which have become contemporary classics. However, Oates has also always been a faithful writer of poetry. American Melancholy showcases some of her finest work of the last few decades. Covering subjects big and small, and written in an immediate and engaging style, this collection touches on both the personal and political. Loss, love, and memory are investigated, along with the upheavals of our modern age, the reality of our current predicaments, and the ravages of poverty, racism, and social unrest. Oates skillfully writes characters ranging from a former doctor at a Chinese People's Liberation Army hospital to Little Albert, a six-month-old infant who took part in a famous study that revealed evidence of classical conditioning in human beings. -
The Book of Healing by Perfect for readers looking to overcome pain, heal from trauma, and rebuild a strong sense of self, The Book of Healing contains Najwa's favourite pieces from her three bestselling books - Mind Platter, The Nectar of Pain, and Sparks of Phoenix. Beautifully packaged with foil-stamping and a ribbon marker, this gift-worthy selection of poems gets straight to the heart of Najwa's message. A keepsake or a broad introduction, The Book of Healingis a worthy companion for anyone looking to cultivate emotional resilience. -
Everything by The poems in Everything, Andrea Cohen's seventh collection, traffic in wonder and woe, in dialogue and interior speculation. Humor and gravity go hand in hand here. Cohen's poems have the rueful irony of a stand-up comic playing to an empty room. But look around: there are wrecking balls, zebras, lovers, milk money. It's a room to hang around in. -
Grocery List Poems by LONG LISTED FOR THE 2021 POETRY BOOK AWARD The second full-length title to award-winning poet and former Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Rhiannon McGavin. If the word stanza means "room," then this book is an orchard. Former Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Rhiannon McGavin crafts poems with scraps of the everyday, from dream diaries to postcards. She integrates the facts of daily life into lyric verse, switching out traditional forms easily as trying on new sweaters. Led by emotions "real as the mosaic air between screen and projector," McGavin explores what it means to become your own calendar.
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