As a black child of the American South and a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Komunyakaa brings his singular vision to this outstanding volume. Included here is a diverse mix of senior masters, crowd-pleasing bards, rising stars, and the fresh voices of an emerging generation. With comments from the poets elucidating their work and series editor David Lehman's eloquent foreword assessing the state of the art, The Best American Poetry 2003 is a must-have for readers of contemporary poetry. Jonathan Aaron • Beth Anderson • Nin Andrews • Wendell Berry • Frank Bidart • Diann Blakely • Bruce Bond • Catherine Bowman • Rosemary Catacalos • Joshua Clover • Billy Collins • Michael S. Collins • Carl Dennis • Susan Dickman • Rita Dove • Stephen Dunn • Stuart Dybek • Charles Fort • James Galvin • Amy Gerstler • Louise Glück • Michael Goldman • Ray Gonzalez • Linda Gregg • Mark Halliday • Michael S. Harper • Matthea Harvey • George Higgins • Edward Hirsch • Tony Hoagland • Richard Howard • Rodney Jones • Joy Katz • Brigit Pegeen Kelly • Galway Kinnell • Carolyn Kizer • Jennifer L. Knox • Kenneth Koch • John Koethe • Ted Kooser • Philip Levine • J. D. McClatchy • W. S. Merwin • Heather Moss • Stanley Moss • Paul Muldoon • Peggy Munson • Marilyn Nelson • Daniel Nester • Naomi Shihab Nye • Ishle Yi Park • Robert Pinsky • Kevin Prufer • Ed Roberson • Vijay Seshadri • Alan Shapiro • Myra Shapiro • Bruce Smith • Charlie Smith • Maura Stanton • Ruth Stone • James Tate • William Tremblay • Natasha Trethewey • David Wagoner • Ronald Wallace • Lewis Warsh • Susan Wheeler • Richard Wilbur • C. K. Williams • Terence Winch • David Wojahn Robert Wrigley • Anna Ziegler • Ahmos Zu-Bolton II

    As Rumi said, "Love will find its way through all languages on its own". In 'teaching my mother how to give birth', Warsan's debut pamphlet, we witness the unearthing of a poet who finds her way through all preconceptions to strike the heart directly. Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer who is based in London. Born in 1988, she is an artist and activist who uses her work to document narratives of journey and trauma. Warsan has read her work internationally, including recent readings in South Africa, Italy and Germany, and her poetry has been translated into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

    Despite the shaky conditions in the world, she and a friend embark on a cross-country bicycle trip. She's nearly two thousand miles from home when an EMP (Electro-magnetic pulse) over the eastern third of the nation takes out the power grid and cripples transportation. She must get home! Her husband, kids, and grandkids are back at their homestead in Montana! Ride along with Sue on her harrowing and often dangerous journey from Mississippi to Montana across a country just realizing that the world as they knew it is gone.(In January 2013 the author pulled the book file to rewrite some sections in response to reader comments and suggestions, which made a good story even better. This is the new version.)

     A one-night-stand was supposed to be just that...one night. I'm the one that made sure this Chase guy would agree to my rule.One hot night with no strings attached.So why am I wanting to break all the rules and find this guy that turned my world upside down with just that one crazy night?Why couldn't I let it go? Why couldn't I let images of the best time I'd ever had with a guy go?Because he was every girls fantasy in bed. He took me to levels I never knew existed and now I'm pissed I didn't demand a friends with benefits relationship.I thought I'd gotten over him, until a year later when I saw him again. He had that greedy smile I remembered, that daring look, and it was all I could do to keep it together.When he tells me that I'm all he's thought about since our night together and wants to hook up again? I know I'd be an idiot to turn him down.One small problem though. Being strongly blinded by lust has me ignoring the fact that I come from a wealthy family and he doesn't. If I fall for this guy that is everything my family warned me about, this can turn into a disaster.But I'm not falling for his charms, body, soft side, or his damn eyes that speak to my soul.At least that's what I tell myself, even though I internally should know this poor little rich girl is getting charmed by a very dangerous snake.Or am I?A one-night-stand never ends in love.So what in the hell am I getting myself into now?I'm playing with fire and I know I'm about to get burned. The perfect man doesn't exist, or did I seriously just land the best man any girl could ask for?

    She’s a rising star at her Chicago tech start up. She’s well liked, she’s funny, she’s smart, she’s pretty. But despite all this, for some strange reason, Amy’s had an absolutely awful love life. It couldn’t possibly be Amy’s fault… right? Enter Josephine Taft, rich and successful tech investor, swooping in to save Amy’s company from financial ruin. In addition to being wealthy and accomplished, Josephine is also a total fox and Amy can’t help but swoon over her. No pressure here. As our quirky heroine maneuvers through this stylized romantic comedy, often butting heads with a whimsical cast of characters, she’ll have to look within to both save her company and get the girl. Will Amy be able to rein in her eccentricities and prove to Josephine that she’s worth the investment?

    Both conceptual and haunted, these poems explore the asymmetry of the body's chemistry and its effects on expression and form. The poems in Threshold Songs tune us to the microtonal music of speaking and being spoken.

    Three long poems interspersed with prose pieces, Souls of the Labadie Tract takes as its starting point the Labadists, a Utopian Quietest sect that moved from the Netherlands to Cecil County, Maryland, in 1684. The community dissolved in 1722. In Souls, Howe is lured by archives and libraries, with their ghosts, cranks, manuscripts and scraps of material. One thread winding through Souls is silken: from the epigraphs of Edwards ("the silkworm is a remarkable type of Christ...") and of Stevens ("the poet makes silk dresses out of worms") to the mulberry tree (food of the silkworms) and the fragment of a wedding dress that ends the book. Souls of the Labadie Tract presents Howe with her signature hybrids of poetry and prose, of evocation and refraction:     There it is there it is—you     want the great wicked city     Oh I wouldn't I wouldn't     It's not only that you're not     It's what wills and will not.

    In this timely new approach to the debate, Tom Whipple travels far and wide - from a Home Counties swingers' party to a gay penguin sanctuary in Germany - and draws on the latest studies in behavioural science as well as fascinating explorations into anthropology to present a surprising tale of expectations and mismatches.If you are currently single, this book is about your place in the dating market - your successes, your failures and what they mean. If you are in a relationship, it is about why you chose the person you are with, why they chose you - and the circumstances in which either of you might put it all at risk and stray.In X and Why, Tom Whipple delves into the sexual subconscious to explain the inner workings of character and desire. It will change the way you see yourself and everyone around you.

    It's a poetry book, from the perspective of a journal entry in the National Archives. The National Archives live in a building in Seattle behind barbed wire, directly next door to the Center for Spiritual Living. This is no accident. Gentleman Practice is a disarming de-haunting of accidents. There are no stunt doubles performing the honesty in this book. Head raised and victorious, he has crafted a translation of the human spirit on a small, practical patch, with a very fine tooth indeed. And, while many poetry books read like a thick epic series of sections, Gentleman Practice will no doubt rest in your hands like a well-oiled novel.

    Stranger, Baby, its follow-up, is marked by the same sense of fantasy and play, estrangement and edgy humour for which she has become known. But these poems delve deeper again, in their off-kilter and often painful encounter with childhood loss. This is a book of mourning, recrimination, exhilaration and 'oceanic feeling': 'A meditation on a want that can never be answered.'

    Older man, younger woman who have fought their feelings for years. Sexy times? Yep. Naughty and delicious!Ivy has been in love with her father's best friend since she was eighteen, but she knows she doesn't even register on his radar - until one night when he steps in to deal with a bitter ex-boyfriend hellbent on teaching her a lesson.Ashton has hidden his feelings from Ivy for years - after all, she's forbidden fruit. Right? Taking her home with him may not be his best decision ever because once she's in his bed...all bets are off.Part of The Claiming Series - sweet, and steamy shorts novels for your reading pleasure. Claiming Ivy is a short, spicy, age-gap love story set over a two-day period with no cheating and a HEA. If you like longer, slow burn romance, check out my Choices Series instead.

    The second book of Dante Alighieri's classic poem "The Divine Comedy," this version of "Purgatorio" couples a clever literary adaptation incorporating modern urban speech and contemporary references with powerful illustrations inspired by Gustave Dore's famous engravings. Whereas "Inferno" was primarily situated in a city that bears a curious resemblance to modern Los Angeles, "Purgatorio" is set in a surreal San Francisco Bay Area, an outlandish and hopeful milieu for those who have a chance to wash their sins away. Together, the sardonic yet playful combination of text and images comprise a vivid retelling of this masterpiece.

    Taking the stage after the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe. Her poem “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country” can now be cherished in this special gift edition. Including an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, this keepsake celebrates the promise of America and affirms the power of poetry.

     Everything went wrong for Robert. Alone and desperate, he needed a companion. Someone to fill the dark void in his life. He wasn’t searching for love, only friendship. He had no idea he would soon find both. Clara was facing her own desperate struggles. A divorced woman with a secret that made her unwanted by most men. The only way to save herself was to become a mail order bride. But it wasn’t an easy choice, and Robert’s not an easy man. He has his own secrets, and he won’t share them. But Clara won’t give up. Robert might be tough, but she’s tougher. The more Clara learns about him, the more she wants his affection… and his love. But she’s not sure Robert’s willing to give it. When disaster strikes, Robert and Clara will have to face their fears. But can they overcome them in time to save their relationship, or were they doomed from the start?