Things I Meant to Say to You When We Were Old [Paperback]

    The complete works of an extraordinary poet who consistently refines the notion of what constitutes an American sound.

    . . These poems literally vibrate with Kearney's precocious intellect and passion. They hum, they bang, they bite. What else can I say? I have never encountered poetry like this before."—Terrance Hayes

    "I have never before read a book like Anais Duplan's Take This Stallion. Her major talent is recognizing the self in the other, making for poems that flow forward in a tone of oneness is oneness a tone? poems that make evident an ever-expanding world by opening themselves up into that world. This debut does what poets in their fifth or sixth collections are still trying to figure: it balances the intellect, image, music, and emotion in ways so unfamiliar that a blurb couldn't possible characterize the work." —Jericho Brown

    His voice and sensibility are distinctive, and the places he goes are ones where not many writers are able or willing to venture. The dark world of his poems, which face many of the hardest truths we must learn to live with, is lit by humor, tenderness, compassion, and honesty. For this edition, the poet has selected from the best of his previous collections, in some cases making substantial revisions, and has added his newest poems. The resulting collection is exciting in its breadth, consistency, depth, and distinction.

    His new work, Hip Logic, is full of poetic tributes to the likes of Paul Robeson, Big Bird, Balthus, and Mr. T, as well as poems based on the anagram principle of words within a word. Throughout, Hayes's verse dances in a kind of homemade music box, with notes that range from tender to erudite, associative to narrative, humorous to political. Hip Logic does much to capture the nuances of contemporary male African American identity and confirms Hayes's reputation as one of the most compelling new voices in American poetry.

    Best of all, he's packed us in his suitcase. He represents an ever-changing population of those raised elsewhere who find themselves beckoned by the history, mystique, and magic-makers of New York City. These poems inhabit their own contradictions, and exquisitely navigate the many complicated sides of what it means to be alive. About The Author: Jon Sands has been a professional teaching and performing artist since 2007. He's a recipient of the 2009 NYC-LouderARTS fellowship grant, and has represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam. He is the Director of Poetry and Arts Education Programming at the Positive Health Project, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. His work has appeared in decomP magazine, The Millions, Suss, The Literary Bohemian, Danse Macabre, The November 3rd Club, and others. He lives in New York City, where he makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.

    Beginning with "Riot Act," a monologue about the Los Angeles uprising in April 1992, Ai explored racial and sexual politics through the voices of diverse characters.

    She loved Je’Marcus Watford past his flaws and stayed loyal, even when he failed to put her first. She dove head first into their young love, allowing Je’Marcus to be her lifeline when her mother abandoned her to chase the street life, but when the smoke clears and those blinders come off, Aniqa finds herself living a heart-breaking nightmare. Hoping to give her baby girl, Essence, the world, Aniqa is faced with a tough decision: move on from Je’Marcus’ abusive love drought, or stay blindly committed to a disloyal dude. There’s just one problem, though: the only way Je’Marcus plans to let her go is through death. Linc Carmichael is a low key boss that wants no parts of the L word. Determined to take the family business to the next level, he plays it close to the chest when dealing with chicks. He sticks to chicks that don’t expect a commitment and has one main rule: no chicks with kids. That all goes out the window when he meets Aniqa; her natural beauty and heart of gold bring Linc to his knees, and he knows he has to have her—no matter who has to die in the process. Crushed is what you feel when love don’t love you back, but Linc just might be the one to renew Aniqa’s faith in love when she finds herself Crushin’ on a Boss....

     Sisters Hill, Haven and Hailo live a lavish life built off the wealth of other people. With the help of one man who is undoubtedly the reason the sisters aren't lost to the streets they embark on new capers. Andraco and Waikeem become the target of Hill and Hailo and the story begins. What was supposed to be a quick and easy lick becomes everything but that and the women find themselves torn between what they should do and what they have to do. Even with hearts as cold as ice the sisters really desire to be loved. When they come across men that connect with them on a level that reaches far beyond the physical they're left with the choice to choose love or loyalty.

    Free, for the time being, from the power of the gods and the ceaseless weight of the rock, he struggles to navigate twenty-first-century America. In language by turns mordant and tender, often elegiac, Dunn illuminates the quotidian burdens of his all-too-human hero, as well as the abrasions of ambivalence and choice, finally concluding that "here / and there, though mostly here, even fate is reversible / with struggle or luck."In a second sequence of poems, nineteenth-century novelists become "local visitors" to the author's South Jersey towns. "Chekhov in Port Republic," "Jane Austen in Egg Harbor," "Dostoyevsky in Wildwood": these inventions and others give Dunn provocative new latitudes. As in his previous books, "he balances the casual and the vivid as he plumbs the ambiguity and mystery of human relations" (New York Times Book Review).

    They throw us off rooftops and say we slipped. They shoot my father and say he was crazy. They put a bullet in my head and say they found me that way."Blending images of street life, drugs, and AIDS against hope and determination, Willie Perdomo is a cutting-edge bard who speaks to the soul of his generation.

    Every time he pulls away, something goes array and sucks him back in. A natural born leader and peace maker, he gives himself two months to be free from the streets while saving every dollar he can to fulfill the promise he made to himself. Taj Ali Adams has a bright future ahead of her and an undeniable light that everyone around her wants to protect, especially her older brother. With tragedy lingering around her, the light that shined so bright goes dim. Taj is forced to adjust to a whole new world after her father packs them up and moves unexpectedly. In a haze, Taj questions everything. Then fate steps in and guides two souls to each other. But the question is, will fate play fair and bring back Taj’s light to be a guide or will it diminish forever? Find out in Indigo Haze: Thug Love is the Best Love.

    At once melancholic and jubilant, Jackson considers the journey of humanity, with all its foibles, as a sacred pattern of discovery reconciled by art and the imagination. From “The Absurd Man at Fourteen”He punched her again, a woman called the house,some yelling then us out the door leavingthe kitchen phone cord swinging.

    – Shubhangi Swarup (Latitudes of Longing)