Sin and Robert M. Drake. What are you hiding behind your smile? If those empty bottles that line the walls of your room could speak, what tales would they spill? So much of your truth is buried beneath the lies you tell yourself. There’s a need to scream to the moon; there’s this urge to go out into the darkness of the night to purge. There are so many stories living inside your soul, you just want the opportunity to tell them. And when you can’t find the will to express what lives within your heart, these words will give you peace. These words will set you free.

    With her marriage shattered, Erin Belieu sifts the wreckage for the black box, the record of disaster. Propelled by a blistering and clarifying rage, she composed at fever pitch and produced riveting, unforgettable poems, such as the ten-part sequence “In the Red Dress I Wear to Your Funeral”:I root through your remains,looking for the black box. Nothing leftbut glossy chunks, a pimp’s platinumtooth clanking inside the urn. I play youover and over, my beloved conspiracy,my personal Zapruder film—look. . .When Belieu was invited by the Poetry Foundation to keep a public journal on their new website, readers responded to the Black Box poems, calling them “dark, twisted, disturbed, and disturbing” and Belieu a “frightening genius.” All true.

    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.

    As the child of Bangladeshi immigrants, the poet in turn explores her own losses, as well as the complexities of bearing witness to the atrocities these war heroines endured.Throughout the volume, the narrator endeavors to bridge generational and cultural gaps even as the victims recount the horror of grief and personal loss. As we read, we discover the profound yet fragile seam that unites the fields, rivers, and prisons of the 1971 war with the poet’s modern-day hotel, or the tragic death of a loved one with the holocaust of a nation.Moving from West Texas to Dubai, from Virginia to remote villages in Bangladesh and back again, the narrator calls on the legacies of Willa Cather, César Vallejo, Tomas Tranströmer, and Paul Celan to give voice to the voiceless. Fierce yet loving, devastating and magical at once, Seam is a testament to the lingering potency of memory and the bravery of a nation’s victims. Winner, Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, 2014 Winner, Binghamton University Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, 2015

    Despite the fact that he is a non-native writer, Kaminksy's sense of rhythm and lyric surpasses that of most contemporary poets in the English language. This magical, musical book of poems draws readers into its unforgettable heart, and Carolyn Forche writes simply "I am in awe of his gifts."

     Book 1 Captured Skull was immediately taken with the innocent girl he saw in a coffee shop one morning. He quickly became obsessed with her. But will his obsession destroy them both? Book 2 Burned Torch was sent to locate the President's wife and to bring her back, using anything or anyone at his disposal. Katie was only supposed to be a means to an end, but she quickly develops into more. Can these two survive the war around them? Book 3 Released Beth has always loved Skull, but being back in his arms was one place she never thought she'd be. She still loves him, but when he looks at her, all she sees is his hate. Can these two put the past behind them and find a future? Or is it much too late? Book 4 Shafted Bree was forbidden to Jax in every possible way. He should walk away. She's much too young and his president might just end him if he finds out the dirty things Jax is doing to his niece. Jax knows he's playing with fire, but the way he has it figured... Bree is worth dying for.

    Nakhai loves Quinn as if she was his little sister, and wants nothing but the best for her. When Quinn makes the decision that she wants to help Nakhai run the “business” while DJ is locked up, he is reluctant, butagainst his better judgment, he brings her in and teaches her everything. Khai has just stepped up from the world of marijuana and into the world of cocaine and has linked up with the only other team that can make as much money if not more than he can. When Khai links up with Stylez and Mar, the streets of Buffalo don’t know what hit them. After running into Quinn in the mall, Stylez wants nothing more to make her his, but can he handle the fact that she’s the other half of the duo that’s serving him his product? Will Quinn ever tell Stylez that she is his supplier, or will she remain a silent partner until her brother comes home and bow out gracefully without ever saying anything to him?

    Hope can lie dormant in the tiniest of seeds. . .In the blink of an eye, Daniel’s world spirals out of control. He watches helplessly as the bodies of his father and friends are buried in stone. Those he loved would never know the breath of life again. In this overwhelming loss, he despairs. Was this the end of hope? The rest of his family and the others in their small alliance had already fled the destruction of society, headed for the northern wilderness. Can he possibly reach them on his own?Salvation can be found in the most unlikely place . . .If he does, will the wilderness be the sanctuary of which they dream? Are their skills good enough to survive in the wilds on their own? Will it be possible to survive the evils that emanate from the decaying world they left behind? And if they do, is it truly possible for something beautiful to grow from the damaged seeds of society?The heart is the doorway to any dream...Their journey is one filled with beauty and peril. Their dream; to create a better world, one in which future generations will live with peace, love and kindness. of society?

    A practicing physician for more than 40 years, Williams worked in the idiom of modern American speech ― unlike his friend and mentor, Ezra Pound ― and his poems are redolent with a warmth and generosity of spirit. The Beat poets were particularly impressed with the accessibility of his language, and Williams's widely quoted dictum, "No ideas but in things," influenced a generation of American poets.This fine selection offers readers the opportunity to study and enjoy the richness and variety of Williams's early work. More than 70 poems, published between 1917 and 1921, include "Peace on Earth," "Tract," "El Hombre," "Danse Russe," "Keller Gegen Dom," "Willow Poem," "Queen-Anne's-Lace," "Portrait of a Lady," "The Widow's Lament in Springtime," and many others.

     Rumi’s popularity has gone beyond national and ethnic borders. He is considered to be one of the greatest classical poets, by the speakers of Persian language in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. His poetry is still read worldwide today and has been translated into a wide variety of languages including Turkish, Persian, Russian, Asian, English and Spanish languages. Likely due to the pure universal natural themes in his poetry, Rumi’s works are simplistic and beautiful at the same time. A collection of 101 quotes of wisdom from Rumi on life, love and happiness. "Anyone who genuinely and consistently with both hands looks for something, will find it. " "Now is the time to unite the soul and the world. Now is the time to see the sunlight dancing as one with the shadows." "Gamble everything for love, if you’re a true human being. If not, leave this gathering." “Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.” "Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom." ............... Download this book now to experience essential wisdom from the timeless Rumi.

    Danks AwardHapax is ancient Greek for "once, once only, once and for all," and "onceness" pervades this second book of poems by American expatriate poet A. E. Stallings. Opening with the jolt of "Aftershocks," this book explores what does and does not survive its "gone moment"-childhood ("The Dollhouse"), ancient artifacts ("Implements from the Grave of the Poet"), a marriage's lost moments of happiness ("Lovejoy Street"). The poems also often compare the ancient world with the modern Greece where Stallings has lived for several years. Her musical lyrics cover a range of subjects from love and family to characters and themes derived from classical Greek sources ("Actaeon" and "Sisyphus"). Employing sonnets, couplets, blank verse, haiku, Sapphics, even a sequence of limericks, Stallings displays a seemingly effortless mastery of form. She makes these diverse forms seem new and relevant as modes for expressing intelligent thought as well as charged emotions and a sense of humor. The unique sensibility and linguistic freshness of her work has already marked her as an important, young poet coming into her own.

    The poems also address gender inequality and our inharmonious relationship with the natural world. A poem on Lilian Bland – the first woman to design, build and fly her own aeroplane – celebrates the audacity and ingenuity of a great Irish heroine. Elsewhere, explorers in Greenland set foot on a fjord system accessible to Europeans for the first time in millennia as a result of global warming. But if life is fragile then its traces are persistent, insistent, and in ‘Articulation’ we are invited to stop and wonder at the reconstructed skeleton of Napoleon’s horse, Marengo, ‘whose very hooves trod mud at Austerlitz’, suspended in time ‘for however long he lasts before he crumbles’.

    A small pool of reflection in a forest of words is all it takes to escape the worries of the day. Join us for tea in the form of poetry, the wilds are waiting to heal you. A collection of poems to soothe your soul and set free your worry. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes sad, we all need a balance so we don't go mad. This collection of poems is brought to you by a heart that has been through the worst and bloomed again and again. A book full of hope and magic.

    From the boy who speaks only in "Kung Fu" dialogue to the guy who visits a lesbian bar and sees his mother, this often funny and always thoughtful book of poems offers fresh, surprisingly frank meditations on the credentials for contemporary manhood.

    This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.