Contemporary American Poetry

You’re Not a Girl in a Movie is a new collection of powerful poems by Hala Alyan, winner of the Arab American Book Award in Poetry and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In these nine extraordinary poems, Alyan wrestles with the intimate themes that have driven her acclaimed body of work to date: the aching loss of homeland, the image and worth of women, and the violence of love. In Beirut, Brooklyn, and roads in the American West, she unravels the effects of decades of war and displacement on love and human worth and identity.

'Intelligent and unpretentious Modern Poetry for intelligent, unpretentious and modern-minded people.' Barn Swallow. In groups: a mad woman's hyperactive Tourette's tearing at her hair; her flailing fists, and rapid arm-weaving, everywhere and nowhere; alone: a Tartar's arrow-bolt ~ fletched with blue steel... This masterful collection brings exquisite high-art poetry to ordinarily educated readers. Each poem comes with a set of explanatory notes, written by the author himself; and this edition also includes an informative essay to explain what makes free-verse successful. The few technical...

“Book of Longing has exceptional range. It is clear yet steamy, cosmic yet private, both playful and profound.”—New York Times Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing—his first book of poetry in more than twenty years after 1984's Book of Mercy—during his five-year stay at a...

A humorous and heartwarming bounce-to-the-beat underdog story about a young rapper whose rhymes help bring his community together, from America's favorite rapping teacher. As featured on Good Morning America! Eleven-year-old Simon Barnes dreams of becoming a world-famous rapper that everyone...

From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in 12 years. Aimless Love combines new poems with selections from four previous books— Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. Collins’s unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard with every word, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience.

A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by Why Fathers Cry at Night author and #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology...

In his collection of poems, Musings of a Hermit, Charles (Chuck) Kausalik-Boe explores seeking the divine through the natural world, cats and chance encounters with others. From the solitude of his tiny inner city home, he watches and reflects on what passes by his porch windows. He also goes within to experience the magic that dwells in his heart and soul. From Chuck’s pen flows poetry that is both prayerful and filled with whimsy. Musings of a Hermit is a love song to the divine, the world around us, and to the magic that is possible.

New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins captures the essence and mystery of dogs in this special collection of poems inspired by our beloved companions, with striking watercolor canine portraits by Pamela Sztybel. “Collins remains the most companionable of...

Poems by famous Indian American poetess Lavanya Sharma Shah

'Solitude and other poems' is a poetic celebration of Rejender Krishan's insctinctive love blending his wordly experiences and perceptions that are inspired by the ancient wisdom of Hindu Philosophy.

Seasonal haiku, tanka and short poems exploring nature subjects and tableau within the thriving metropolitan context of Minneapolis, as springboards toward reflection and meditating upon certain agonizing events grappled with at the time of their composition or shortly previous. Including pieces published in many prestigious magazines and literary journals, Bathtub Poems is a comeback story of sorts, about the importance of retaining hope, how integral friends and family, faith and community can be when overcoming adversity, amidst life's many upsets and struggles. 87 pages in length with 1...

'Intelligent but unpretentious rhyming poetry for intelligent but unpretentious people.' Queenly Kitten, Rosette of Snows Where few dirty mortals go; Why did God grant pretty grace To a perfect killer’s face? The time is right - and the reading public craves - for a return to rhyming poetry that is both understandable to all but also 'aristocratic' in its artistic standards. When you read this poetry, you will feel as empowered as a prince. The user-friendly edition also comes with poem-by-poem explanatory notes by the author himself, an essay which defines traditional rhyming poetry in ...

This humorous and heartwarming sequel to Simon B. Rhymin' follows a young rapper navigating the inequality and injustice within his school and community. Eleven-year-old Simon and his friends are disappointed with the lack of funding at Booker T. Washington School—there’s no AC, only one...

Tense and emotional... ...extremely candid poetry. Why does poetry ask probing questions, evoke deep emotions, and elude monolithic explanations? This book is a time capsule of a young man searching for solutions while offering none. These poems represent a maturing mind attempting to understand life and one person's place in it. Poems are photographs of literature where the observer can extract more words from it with each viewing. A must-read for adolescents and young adults! Get it now.

Enter the dark and twisted world of G.R. Tomaini, a contemporary Poet, Philosopher, Systematic Theologian, and author of nine books who explores the depths of human depravity, despair, and decadence. In The Psalms of Babylon, you will find 112 Flowers of Malaise that will shock, disturb, and fascinate you. You will encounter seductive sirens, hungry hogs, unholy grins, and laughing gas. You will visit opium dens, woodchippers, bathtubs, and tombs. You will witness sin, surf, seance, and soliloquy. You will experience asphyxiation, jouissance, Ragnarok, and metanoia. The Psalms of Babylon ...

With Love as the Muse, the poet struggles within eternal realms of question. His doubts fuel his love of Creation and he accepts the burden of the eternal recurrence. The mystery puzzles and defines him as he scrapes through all relevant philosophical trajectories. Finally he recognizes that the fruit of philosophy is rotting on its vine—metaphysics is dead!These poems are dedicated to real people whose value to the poet is immeasurably without reconciliation to the world of appearance. This collection ponders and pontificates the age-old questions.

By any measure, Ed Zahniser is one of the truest poets in America in this century. If you love mountain poetry and wilderness on the page, Adirondack Mountain & Cabin Poems is your next read. Ed Zahniser writes from the Adirondack cabin he's visited since the 1940s. Here is the mountain experience rendered by the poet’s words and beyond. Encounter the bird that reads the poet’s note on the tree and startles away. A harvest of wilderness after-thoughts, Ed’s mountains restore the reader time and again: Paper Birch Scribble scribble scribble idly on white birchbark Leave these on the ...

With lively writing and illuminating examples, David Caplan argues that two characteristics mark the vast, contentious literature. On the one hand, several of America's major poets and critics claim that America needs a poetry equal to the country's distinctiveness. They advocate for novelty and for a break with what is perceived to be outmoded and foreign.

This collection of poems presents a unique perspective on enduring themes--love, existentialism, the darker side of life in an urban environment, loneliness, quiet heroism and the transcendent power of poetry to rebuild weary souls and teach lessons we may not want to learn. Although several of the poems in this collection have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines, most are published here for the first time and represent a selection of the author's free verse, blank verse, and sonnets from early adulthood through middle age (1977-2006). The author is a Professor of Legal Studies ...

"Where are you from . . . ? No—where are you from from?" It's a question every Asian American gets asked as part of an incessant chorus saying you'll never belong here, you're a perpetual foreigner, you'll always be seen as an alien, an object, or a threat. Monica Youn's From From brilliantly evokes the conflicted consciousness of deracination. If you have no core of "authenticity," no experience of your so-called homeland, how do you piece together an Asian American identity out of Westerners' ideas about Asians? Your sense of yourself is part stereotype, part aspiration, part guilt.