Dikter

The first major and only available collection from John Farris, a seminal Black voice in downtown New York City poetry, featuring his final poems transcribed and in manuscript form, along with the self-portraits and drawings he made at the same time, encouraged to do so by his friend David Hammons. John Farris (1940-2016) was the ultimate gadfly of the New York poetry scene, a universally known and revered genius. Author of the small press novel The Ass' Tale and poetry collection It's Not About Time, these Last Poems will be his first widely available work. A collection of drawings along with facsimile and transcribed poems from the end of his life, it's a profound monument to a poet who resolutely lived on the margins, and whose voice is all the more important because of it.

"Eka Prajapatira Mrutyu" is a lyrical long poem by poet Dr. Dinabandhu Sahoo, who is a doctor by profession and a poet and painter by passion. There are illustrations to support each poem. All the illustrations are done by the poet himself.

How lucky we are to have A.R. Williams' refined and contemplative poems. Poems that reach well beyond his native Virginia and touch on the universal themes of memory, relationships, and place. Poems that, collectively, share the overarching theme that our lives and the natural world are always in flux. This is expertly demonstrated in the author's poem "Breath Cloud: " "a translucent cluster of cotton / eventuates / and like a ghostly daydream, / vanishes." Perpetual change means that we will all inevitably experience hardship and loss-this means that there is much to fear. Not surprisingly, Williams is discerning and does not leave his readers feeling hopeless. He also offers us poems of renewal. The author concludes by confessing that he has "nothing more pressing to do than...write to [us]" and, selfishly, I hope that remains the case for years to come. I wholeheartedly recommend this strong and stirring debut.-Corey D. Cook, author of Junk Drawer and editor of Red Eft ReviewThe experience of reading A Funeral in the Wild feels like discovering a cherished photo album. A. R Williams creates a series of poised and delicate snapshots, blending family and the pieces of the natural world that mean the most to him. The result is a surprising sense of intimacy, in poems that are tender, questioning and sometimes raw. Among repeated motifs of trees and birds, we trace the roots of a childhood, a marriage and look with vulnerable hope into the future, where dragonflies helicopter above leafy limbs, ripe tomatoes clutch a child's hand at the market, and dandelion seeds are blown into the wind.-Jen Feroze, author of The Colour of HopeA.R. Williams' first chapbook focuses on fatherhood, relationships and personal fragilities, with a bird's-eye view over life in American towns and landscapes. In these lively, short poems, we are presented with witty descriptions-"A red-winged blackbird intonated a hymn, / before flaunting his red and yellow/ shoulder pads and jet-black suit" and a memorably poetic description of tree-bark with its "cracked and ashen armor." The imagist technique employed by Williams has a real focus on craft and economy, ensuring that these spring-loaded poems are both vivid and suggestive, with an emotional undertow, where words are chosen for resonance and not wasted.-Matthew M. C. Smith, author of The Keeper of Aeons and editor of Black Bough Poetry

"We walk together gathering the coming darkness with both hands."In Sandra Noel's What the Pain Left, the poems crystalize through the lens of grief, each poem sharpened by images, story, and insights. This sounds like a volume of long poems and a thick read, but no. Tightly and sparingly, Noel stitches with a golden thread her poems of clarity and depth. She details her life with her husband from young love's first attraction to their rich shared life with its core of marine science and the sea. His cancer diagnosis interferes with their life's flow. They encounter days of watching for hope in the affront of pain, then nights dealing with death, and finally her days turning toward living. These poems call us to a deeper empathy.-Ann Spiers, author of Rain Violent (Empty Bowl), Back Cut (Black Heron), and Harpoon (Triple Series # Ravenna). See annspiers.com.In Sandra Noel's What the Pain Left, we witness the flux and flow of a life passing in clear, forthright language that bares all the complexity of changing weather and temperamental seas. These poems read as vulnerable glimpses into what is a painful and unfathomable journey: the death of a soulmate. As the poems unfold, we witness hints of the poet's continued, independent journey in a life that embraces the natural world which once linked these life partners together in their work and home. A life, like some landscapes, which now "...will never be healed completely but it can be restored enough." Part diary, part love letter, Noel's humor, gratitude, and self-awareness keep these poems honest and truly from the heart.-Katy E. Ellis, author of Home Water, Home Land

Tender poetry chronicling a son's relationship with his mother through her battle with cancer and his move from his homeland of Nigeria to the United States. Winner of the 2023 CAAPP Book Prize from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and Autumn House Press, Okwudili Nebeolisa's debut poetry collection serves as an intimate exploration of the relationship between a Nigerian mother and son. Throughout the book, Nebeolisa navigates the guilt of starting a new life in the United States, far away from his home country and from his mother, who is battling cancer. Depicting tender moments between mother and son, Terminal Maladies highlights how the poet and his family shoulder the responsibility of caregiving together and how Nebeolisa works to bridge the physical and emotional distance between them. He reflects on the reasons behind his Nigerian mother's withholding, questioning her need to act bravely alongside his own assumed role as her protector.

A collection of dreamlike poetry, accompanied by ink drawings, reflecting on the experiences of living in an aging body. With her latest collection, Maw Shein Win deftly braids together the pleasures, pains, and anxieties of living in an aging body, revealing how a mind can log thoughts and observations. Win employs new poetic forms to invite her readers into realms that are both deeply personal and universal, rendered with dreamlike imagery and surprising humor. Reflecting on our strange times and the atmospheric undercurrents of chaos and disintegration, Percussing the Thinking Jar is a hypnotic book and invites the reader into conversation with their own vulnerability and resilience. Throughout the book, sumi ink drawings by artist Mark Dutcher echo the rhythms of Win's poetry.

Experimental poetry that embraces shifts, adaptation, and the unknown as a means to move beyond old and dying worlds. Considering how we might detox from old languages, systems, and modes of life, Ian Lockaby's poems seek out new forms of interconnectivity and possibility, finding the energy of emerging worlds along the edges of ruins. This collection poses questions of how to thrive in aftermaths, suggesting that attempts at absolute knowledge are less powerful than an embrace of the unknown. Throughout these poems, Lockaby uses crows as a model for dynamic adaption and creative entanglement with the world and with language, finding "defensible space" for new lyrical syntax amid shifts and desolation: "Everywhere a burning root system. Everywhere, a root fire crowing off the splayed tail feathers of a crow." Defensible Space/if a crow--looks towards a reintroduction of fire into wilds and wilds into our lives, taking the unknown of an "if" as the base from where we can build life.

Poetry that explores wildness and composes a landscape of complex human emotions. Drawing on a range of stylistic influences, the poetry of Sur takes on the essence of connection and the ways in which we continually develop meaning about others and to the natural world. With this collection, David Koehn paints a landscape where wilderness intertwines with human emotions and grows between ill-fitting interpersonal connections. Sur invites readers to step back and look critically at their world while remaining intimately intertwined with it. Throughout, imagery of nature--like a snake drinking from a stream, or a mountain god--blends with the emotional landscape of tumultuous relationships, exploring themes of wildness and an inevitable unraveling of secrets.

A surreal poetry collection considering memory and self-discovery through the character of the archon, the keeper of the mental archive. In Ruth Ellen Kocher's Archon / After, the archive is revealed as both a form of violence and of memory, of site and of event. As keeper of the archive, Kocher's archon determines what pieces of the past may be preserved, housed, documented, ordered, and reviewed. Through these poems, the archon dives deep into memories and into the mysteries of daily life, and, in governance over the future, determines what will be and should be forgotten. The act of forgetting becomes archival violence, with the archon not only serving as the guardian of what remains in the archive but also as an eradicator who decides what is purged. The imagistic and surreal language of this collection invites us to explore a non-logical terrain as we follow the protagonist into her darkest memories and find a path for our own journey of self-discovery.

A poetry collection that questions the current construction of psychiatric treatment while speaking through lived experience and advocating for disability justice. The poems of Brody Parrish Craig's new collection upends narratives around current psychiatric treatment models to focus on the lived experience of survivors and to speak toward liberation, abolition, and disability justice. Titled after the author's own medical records, The Patient Is an Unreliable Historian questions the prevailing narrative that the medical industry knows stories of disability and madness better than those who have lived them. Craig uses lyricism to expose the intersection of madness and criminality in contemporary American culture, moving through institutions, community spaces, and loss of kin. Through the course of the collection, the speaker turns toward irreverence and interrogation, carves out their own freedom, and challenges the script of the patient, the mad, and the "criminal." These poems deconstruct the "patient" to set the person free.

Poetic ballads that speak to a father's quest to chronicle daily life amid times of collapse. Taking its name from part of a lost triptych by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, The Wayfarer documents its speaker's attempt to forge a path through the world--both as a father and as an artist--and to adequately capture the experience of living through poetry. In language that melds the vernacular and the archival, these ballads recall moments of love as they arise in an everyday existence dominated by an awareness of political and ecological collapse. Caught between the terror of wandering and the awe of witnessing new minds as they acquire early words and memories, the poems hold out hope for the tenuous transmission of meaning between generations.

Poems that consider the complexities of human life and the ways that we perceive reality. In Omitting All That is Usually Said, Robin Caton explores the nature of light, form, language, meaning, and thought, alongside the complexity of their interwoven relationships. Caton interrogates the workings of the human mind and explores the way we integrate disparate perceptions. Caton questions whether we can be certain that things really exist and that all we experience isn't simply a play of light and shadow. She considers how we live with all the limitations and emotional turmoil imbedded in humanity, while also maintaining a sense of something we call perfection. The poems of Omitting All That is Usually Said investigate how we might capture the depths of conflicting experiences and lived knowledge in ways that we can comprehend, and they marvel at how we find delight in all of it.

Anne Harding Woodworth's The Spare Parts Saga is the journey of her book, Spare Parts: A Novella in Verse (Turning Point, 2008), as it is goes from Washington, DC, to a place between Co. Tipperary and Co. Clare, Ireland. It is not an easy trip. The poet chronicles her book's several transatlantic crossings. The U.S. Postal Service's daily tracking provides her with the titles of the poems, which prompt Anne to remember her past and to comment on life during the Covid pandemic, as well as to deride the USPS for the book's circuitous travel.

Saints and Sinners is an annual celebration that takes place in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans each spring. The Festival includes writing workshops, readings, panel discussions, literary walking tours, and a variety of special events. We also aim to inspire the written word through our short fiction contest, and our annual Saints and Sinners Emerging Writer Award sponsored by Rob Byrnes. Each year we induct individuals to our Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is intended to recognize people for their dedication to LGBTQ literature. Selected members have shown their passion for our literary community through various avenues including writing, promotion, publishing, editing, teaching, bookselling, and volunteerism.This collection includes a varied selection of poetry from the 2024 festivals including the winners and finalists for the festival's annual poetry contest.

This book offers poignant observations on overlooked aspects of life, conveyed through accessible writing to widen perspectives. Spanning various themes, I delve beneath the surface details that often escape our awareness, elevating them into consciousness through reflections from an intuitive lens. My aim is to open up unconventional avenues of exploration beyond the status quo. Rather than adhering to fixed structural formulas, I let the prose flow freely as an organic extension of my authentic self. There is a subtle power when words channel directly from their source within the mind, heart, and soul. The observations contained in these pages stem from quiet moments of inward attentiveness to what moves me. I find insight in the seemingly mundane, resonating with the extraordinary inherent in ordinary life when we pause to notice. Through spare yet stirring language, I unpack my personal revelations, hoping readers may gain fresh eyes to see the wonder always available just below the veil of habit. This book is my heart felt offering to everyone to read and to enjoy.

This book positions Ovid's Metamorphoses as a foundational text in the western history of environmental thought. The poem is about new bodies. Stones, springs, plants and animals materialize out of human origins to create a world of hybrid objects, which retain varying degrees of human subjectivity while taking on new physical form. In bending the boundaries of known categories of being, these hybrid entities reveal both the porousness of human and other agencies as well as the dangers released by their fusion. Metamorphosis unsettles the category of the human within the complex ecologies that make up the world as we know it. Drawing on a range of modern environmental theorists and approaches, the contributors to this volume trace how the Metamorphoses models the relationship between humans and other life forms in ways that resonate with the preoccupations of contemporary eco-criticism. They make the case for seeing the worldview depicted in Ovid's poem as an exemplar of the 'premodern' ecological mindset that contemporary environmental thought seeks to approximate. They also highlight critical moments in the history of the poem's ecological reception, including reflections by a contemporary poet, as well as studies of Medieval and Renaissance responses to Ovid.

This is the first collection of poems by the creator and spoken word artist Lisa Bennett. She transports us through a wide range of emotions and to different places in her life and growth, through parenting, marriage, divorce, and redemption. If these poems do not sing to you, she hasn't found your key yet. Lisa lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California with thousands of redwoods and a small menagerie.Advance Praise ofWhere I Come InPoems in Lisa Bennett's "Where I Come In" are by turns honest, sensual, and funny. The reader is drawn to accompany the poet as she seeks truth and justice in family history and human history, in wild Nature and human nature. With subjects as varied as infertility, a failed marriage, Kundalini, her pet parrot and Jesus Christ, Bennett displays her poetic prowess and asks readers to awaken into their power as she has clearly awakened into her own. -- Magdalena Montagne, Author of Earth, My Witness

Feelings by David Peter Malin Maxfield is a poignant collection of poetry that delves deep into the human heart. Born in Tickhill, Yorkshire, in 1948, Maxfield brings a lifetime of experiences to his work, offering a rich tapestry of emotions that resonate with readers of all backgrounds. His poems traverse a wide range of themes, from tributes to beloved figures like Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II, to reflections on nature, love, loss, and the human condition. Through his verses, Maxfield explores life's most profound moments, encapsulating the essence of joy, sorrow, hope, and despair with remarkable clarity and depth. His work serves as a testament to the power of poetry to capture the complexities of the human spirit, making Feelings a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the emotional landscapes we all navigate. Whether it's the raw emotion of 'Suicide' and 'Lonely Heart' or the uplifting spirit of 'Spring Love' and 'First Christmas, ' each poem in this collection is a window into the soul, offering a unique perspective on life's many facets. This book is a journey through the heart, crafted by a poet who writes with authenticity and passion

Feelings by David Peter Malin Maxfield is a poignant collection of poetry that delves deep into the human heart. Born in Tickhill, Yorkshire, in 1948, Maxfield brings a lifetime of experiences to his work, offering a rich tapestry of emotions that resonate with readers of all backgrounds. His poems traverse a wide range of themes, from tributes to beloved figures like Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II, to reflections on nature, love, loss, and the human condition. Through his verses, Maxfield explores life's most profound moments, encapsulating the essence of joy, sorrow, hope, and despair with remarkable clarity and depth. His work serves as a testament to the power of poetry to capture the complexities of the human spirit, making Feelings a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the emotional landscapes we all navigate. Whether it's the raw emotion of 'Suicide' and 'Lonely Heart' or the uplifting spirit of 'Spring Love' and 'First Christmas, ' each poem in this collection is a window into the soul, offering a unique perspective on life's many facets. This book is a journey through the heart, crafted by a poet who writes with authenticity and passion.

Safia Hussein Guerras' book, O.N.E - Opportunities Never End, is a profound exploration of the human experience, woven through a rich tapestry of philosophical musings and poetic reflections. The narrative delves deep into the essence of what it means to be human, contemplating the intricacies of love, pain, faith, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. At the heart of Guerras' work lies a poignant understanding of life's dualities and the constant search for meaning in a world fraught with contradictions. Each page resonates with profound insights, challenging the reader to ponder the complexities of existence, the nature of happiness, and the pursuit of inner peace. This book is not just a collection of thoughts; it is a journey into the depths of the soul, inviting us to reflect on our own lives, beliefs, and the choices that shape our destiny. With its blend of poetic eloquence and philosophical depth, O.N.E - Opportunities Never End is a beacon of light for those seeking understanding and enlightenment in the tumultuous sea of life.

Poetry is far more than it seems. Writing verse can provide a creative shorthand for working through dark thoughts, making sense of your emotions and behaviours, as well as those of others. Poetry offers a way to navigate the tangled maze of challenges, strife, and joys that constitute our inner worlds. It can also magnify life's wonders, awe, and delight. These varied experiences - regret, mistakes, learning, stumbling, and persevering with bravery - all comprise a life fully lived. Writing poetry helps minimize the bad times and spotlight the good. Revisiting these poems allows for deeper reflection, enriching your life further. Secrets, Lies and Little Joys contains a sampling of my own poems and experiences, along with contextual commentary. In some cases, I provide explanation of the impetus behind the verse. It is my hope these poems find a shared recognition, a communal understanding that you are not alone, mad, or bad in your travels through life.

Pick a Garnet to Sleep in features poems of loss, of resistance to injustice, of celebration of the natural world, and of appreciation of art and poetry itself. Begun during the pandemic, this book ultimately is unified by hope.

Poems from a long and lucky life.A little risqué, a little sad, a little epic, somewhat mad.Most of these poems bubbled up unbidden. Some were scribbled on an envelope to be performed at a poet's breakfast, some for slam competitions, or inspired by a performer. The mood varies from embarrassment, parental joy, silliness, sadness, cynicism, a sailor's awe, and gratitude. One was in response to a joke. See if you can tell which one.

Joshua Myers's Holy Ghost Key celebrates the essential role of African music in the continuity and sustenance of African Diasporic life and culture. Myers weaves his broad knowledge of African and African American music practices, genres and instruments with his memory of gospel lyrics and symbols evoking African spirituality, showing us the ways in which this music has been both the light on our path and the grounding of our historic journey. Though many of the poems pay tribute to the genius of contemporary musicians who have won popular acclaim, the entire collection reminds of a persistent African ancestral legacy.

In poems that bring together traditional American patriotic songs and current American horrors--and in which Yeats' famous apocalyptic figure of the Rough Beast takes a painting class, wears a spacesuit, and listens to public service announcements--[ominous music intensifying] takes on the too-muchness of contemporary, apocalypse-prone America with humor, conscience, and the occasional fiddle duel. In this fourth book of poetry, Alexandra Teague expands her subject matter to include chronic pain, generational poverty, and what it means to stay safe--physically and psychologically. Her new poems are reckonings with sexism and dental trauma, Mitch McConnell and UFOs, torture devices and sad clown paintings--and with some of the most urgent crises of our time: gun violence, pandemics, and climate change.

A poetic exploration of life amid intimate losses. In Museum of the Soon to Depart, poet Andy Young searches for her place in history as it unfolds around her through revolution, plague, and natural disaster. As curator of her museum, she navigates her own and others' suffering through intense observation, from the inner mechanisms of grief and illness to the solace of distance provided by photography. The material of the poet's own life and events on the world stage intertwine, resulting in poems with a staggering range, inhabiting language in ways that ultimately point to its limits.

A new poetry collection from Eleanor Stanford that is musical, sexy, and darkly funny. These poems take the reader from Mexico City to West Philadelphia to Karachi. The works wade into the difficult joys of mothering, self-exploration, and romantic entanglement in midlife. Throughout, Eleanor Stanford embraces the mysticism of Hildegard of Bingen, the abjection of Tammy Wynette, and the wry self-appraisal of Sylvia Plath, fashioning it all into something entirely its own.

Poems that reflect on the current tragedy in Ukraine. In her newest collection, Ukrainian American poet Dzvinia Orlowsky is a witness, never a bystander, ready to stare down the demons, to "cut yourself with a dull razor." She sets up house among the nightmares of intergenerational trauma and, as far as anyone can, humanizes them. Through her work, Orlowsky prompts us to enter our own histories instead of just watching.

Poems that arise from the currents of felt experience. Joseph Millar's lyrical poems explore work, love, filial connection, life, and death. This is Millar's sixth collection, and it reaches a deeper, more sonic level than his usual narrative voice. A collection of half songs rendered in a hardscrabble lyricism, they are propelled by their shifting, irregular rhymes, half rhymes, and off rhymes. The poems' subjects grow from moments of daily life and their deeper obsessions--love, work, death, desire--and the making of art itself. Touched with more humor than earlier work, and with an unpredictable timing that seems to listen to itself as it travels down the page, the poems are part wonder and part reflection, carried along by their music.

The poems in Oksana Maksymchuk's debut English-language collection meditate on the changing sense of reality, temporality, mortality, and intimacy in the face of a catastrophic event. While some of the poems were composed in the months preceding the full-scale invasion of the poet's homeland, others emerged in its wake. Navigating between a chronicle, a chorus, and a collage, Still City reflects the lived experiences of liminality, offering different perspectives on the war and its aftermath. The collection engages a wide range of sources, including social media posts, the news reports, witness accounts, recorded oral histories, photographs, drone video footage, intercepted communication, and official documents, making sense of the transformations that war affects in individuals, families, and communities. Now ecstatic, now cathartic, these poems shine a light on survival, mourning, and hope through moments of terror and awe.