Book picks similar to
Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios by Helen Humphreys
poetry
wine-words
canadian-literature
genre_christian-catholic-religion
Reckless Paper Birds
John McCullough - 2019
The author of the critically acclaimed collections The Frost Fairs and Spacecraft, Brighton-based John McCullough pulls no punches in this latest - and his most powerful -collection. These are poems of skill, joy and quiet musicality that reflect the conflict and complexity of being.
MxT
Sina Queyras - 2014
These poems mourn the dead by turning memories over and over like an old coin, by invoking other poets, by appropriating the language of technology, of instruction, of diagram, of electrical engineering, and of elegy itself. Devastating, cheeky, allusive, hallucinatory: this is Queyras at her most powerful.'Like the central conceptual apparatus, Queyras is smart and insightful in her work to expand and challenge the nature of language and poetry . . . Lend Queyras your ears, your minds, your hearts, your Time. She will reward you, repeatedly.' – The Rumpus'A collection of gorgeous and cantankerous poems that ask testy questions of all contemporary poets, and for this, the book is a must-read.' – The Globe and Mail'This year's most devastating and enlightening Canadian poetry collection.' – Telegraph-Journal
Time's Power
Adrienne Rich - 1989
Now her mature vision engages with the power of time itself: memory and its contradictions, the ebb and flow between parents and children, the deaths we all face sooner or later, the meaning of human responsibility in all this."Letters in the Family," for example, is written in the voices of three women—from the Spanish Civil War, from a Jewish rescue mission behind Nazi lines, and from present-day Southern Africa. Time's Power shows Rich writing with unprecedented range, complexity, and authority.
The Fifth Stage
Margaret A. Helms - 2003
She muddles through daily routines, her only respite coming in the form of a harmless crush on Rebecca Greenway. Claire believes that the sexy restaurant manager is safely unavailable. But when Rebecca shows signs of interest, Claire's past unravels, revealing an immeasurable love and a dark secret. .an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. Author Margaret A. Helms deftly alternates past and present events in the life of Claire Blevins to build an enthralling and intriguing story. Her rich prose, compelling plot, lively pace, and strongly-drawn characters make The Fifth Stage an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. -- Nann Dunne, editor and publisher of Just About Write (www.justaboutwrite.com), author of The War Between the Hearts, and other stories.
In These Days of Prohibition
Caroline Bird - 2017
As always, she is a poet of dark hilarity and telling social comment. Shifting between poetic and vulgar registers, the surreal imagery of her early work is re-deployed to venture into the badlands of the human psyche. Her poems hold their subjects in an unflinching grip, addressing faces behind the veneer, asking what it is that keeps us alive. These days of prohibition are days of intoxication and inebriation, rehab in a desert and adultery for atheists, until finally Bird edges us out of danger, ‘revving on a wish’.
Sight Map
Brian Teare - 2009
Teare provides us with poems that insist on the simultaneous physical embodiment of tactile pleasure—that which is found in the textures of thought and language—as well as the action of syntax. Partly informed by an ecological imagination that leads him back to Emerson and Thoreau, Teare's method and fragmented style are nevertheless up to the moment. Remarkable in its range, Sight Map serves at once as a cross-country travelogue, a pilgrim's gnostic progress, an improvised field guide, and a postmodern "pillowbook," recording the erotic conflation of lover and beloved, deity and doubter.
Steal My Heart
Marian Snowe - 2020
Taking over her late parents’ company has been hard enough; now some uppity consultant has swanned in and is driving Irene crazy—in every sense of the phrase.Liana Page is smug, condescending, and maddeningly gorgeous. She and Irene form an instant rivalry where every conversation is a battle for the upper hand...and it’s starting to look dangerously like seduction. Something suspicious is going on within Irene’s company, though. Irene refuses to turn a blind eye, especially once she finds out that Liana is involved.Can Irene and Liana get to the bottom of it without ripping off each other’s heads—or clothes?
Freestyle Flirting
Nicolette Dane - 2016
I couldn’t look away from her. The smile built on Dasha’s face, growing from a slight curl to something that could only be described as elation. God, I was so infatuated with her. I felt silly about the whole thing. Loopy, even. I wondered if Dasha felt the same way. Marie Mullally, competitive swimmer, has had it tough. Just a few short years back family tragedy kept her from her dreams of competing in the Olympic Games. But 4 years later she’s more driven than ever, focused on her training, and ready to bring home the Gold in the Summer Olympics. That singular focus, keeping her eyes on the prize, has proven to be great for her athletic goals… but not so much for her love life. These goals get challenged once Marie meets her new coach, Dasha Belenko. Dasha is beautiful, fit, inspiring, a former Olympic Medal winner herself and the kind of coach any swimmer could easily swoon over. Marie and Dasha soon find themselves entangled in a joyful secretive affair, excited for the possibility of love. But jealousy on the team mixed with the impropriety of a coach/swimmer relationship cause for some conflict that could once again keep Marie from her Gold Medal ambitions. Will Marie be able to navigate unfounded jealousy, regain focus on her swimming, and hoist the Gold Medal? Or will this high level competition on the world’s stage leave Marie dead in the water? With tragedy behind her, the spirit of a champion, and love in her heart, Marie is prepared to do what it takes to win in the pool… but at what cost?
Nirvana: Pieces of Self- Healing (Poetry & Prose)
Michael Tavon - 2017
The author discusses, regret, anxiousness, racial issues, craving for love, and much more. Tavon gets deeply personal and introspective, in hopes of helping those who are in need of self-healing too. "Entrapped inside your Heart-shaped box For lonely years You’ve left me here To survive off hope and tears I know your return is unlikely Unlike me, You have a gift Of hurting others with a smile Luring your victims Into the traps of your eyes I enjoy this place Although it’s often cold It has pockets of warmth In your Heart-Shaped Box I’ll forever be stored Waiting for you Love me more Than August loves to storm."
Deviant Propulsion
C.A. Conrad - 2005
The title refers to the idea that those who are deviant propel the world forward at top speed. Delving into the center of the endless webs of repression against our bodies, desires, politics, and imaginations, are those whose actions and motion cut away at the systemic limitations of society. This collection of poems was written with the inspiration and work of these people in mind.As a working class queer poet, Conrad has had to fight through different stratifications of oppression his entire life. His poems vibrate with the flamboyant desire that manifests itself in queer culture, where the right to act on basic desires can become a battleground, and everyday acts of love and devotion must be enacted as a political form of defiance. The poems that emerge from this life long struggle illustrate the sharp edge of that defiance and desire, where joy is closely linked to death. In a world ruled by those who govern with fear, and in a landscape barbed with those who are terrified of desire, moving at speed of deviants is the only way to transform potential into action, and desire into positive change.
Coma Therapy
Eric Victorino - 2007
Important, so inspiring... Please read this book" -Sonny Moore, Recording Artist "There are very few ways to get inside the mind of a lyricist. One way is through reading their diaries, the other through sleeping with them. Eric's book is the more entertaining of the options. It's a raw look inside the heart and mind of a rock 'n' roll spiritualist whose struggles with love (Chaplin) and versus the world (Keaton) are laid out bare like an exhibitionist on a double-dare." -Mike Shea, Founder, AP Magazine "Coma Therapy" is the sound of a powerful new voice in contemporary American literature. Victorino's brand of punchy prose often draws comparisons to the likes of Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson. This debut collection of poems and short stories draws a dangerously thin line between the heartwarming and the horrifying... Eric Victorino then mischievously walks that line all the way to the last page. Defiant, triumphant, hopeful and wise.
A History of Amnesia: Poems
Alfian Sa'at - 2001
He draws inspiration from censored histories, subsumed myths and invokes imagined voices from the exiled, demanding of the reader to witness the ubiquitous ideological fictions that surround us.This is one of the most dissonant and penetrating voices in Singapore poetry.A History of Amnesia is listed in the notable books list by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Award (administered by University of San Francisco).
Matadora
Elizabeth Ruth - 2013
It begins on a bull-breeding ranch in southern Andalucia, Spain, and takes the reader to Mexico and then back to Spain.The story centres on a girl named Luna Caballero Garcia, orphaned young and working as a servant of the famed Garcia family. Luna is determined to become a bullfighter, despite her lowly station in life and the fact that women are prohibited from graduating to the status of matador-do-toros. She burns for the ring, and is willing to bend or break any rule to enter it.Fortunately, Luna finds unlikely patrons in her master’s sons. Manuel, an aspiring poet and socialist, sees in his surrogate sister the genius he wishes he was; Pedro sees a chance to make an astonishing amount of money. The trio decides to travel abroad where Luna will have the opportunity to prove her skill but she knows her true destiny lies in the blood-soaked sands of home.Matadora is a powerful, compelling exploration of love and ambition. The pain that drives all our ambition, the yearning for love it reveals, the lengths we go to win love, and the price we pay along the way. Matadora is about someone like you, trying against all odds, to win love.
Till Human Voices Wake Us
Patti Davis - 2013
In the empty days after her son's death, left alone in her grief by her husband, Isabelle Berendon falls in love with the unlikeliest person in the world: her sister-in-law.Self-published by one of President Ronald Reagan's daughters, who does not identify as a lesbian.