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.

    

    Charles Bernstein here proves them alive and well in poems elegiac, defiant, and resilient to the point of approaching song. Heir to the democratic and poetic sensibilities of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, Bernstein has always crafted verse that responds to its historical moment, but no previous collection of his poems so specifically addresses the events of its time as Girly Man, whichfeatures works written on the evening of September 11, 2001, and in response to the war in Iraq. Here, Bernstein speaks out, combining self-deprecating humor with incisive philosophical and political thinking. Composed of works of very different forms and moods—etchings from moments of acute crisis, comic excursions, formal excavations, confrontations with the cultural illogics of contemporary political consciousness—the poems work as an ensemble, each part contributing something necessary to an unrealizable and unrepresentable whole. Indeed, representation—and related claims to truth and moral certainty—is an active concern throughout the book. The poems of Girly Man may be oblique, satiric, or elusive, but their sense is emphatic. Indeed, Bernstein’s poetry performsits ideas so that they can be experienced as well as understood. A passionate defense of contingency, resistance, and multiplicity, Girly Man is a provocative and aesthetically challenging collection of radical verse from one of America’s most controversial poets.

    Three friends: a nationalist, a unionist and a couldnae-care-lesser meet for a pub crawl down Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile. Can Ian convince Euan to vote for independence or is he just gambling with all their futures? Will Euan’s defence of the union break Ian’s resolve, or is he just hanging on to another struggling marriage? Does Stuart even care? And how can a travel writer have a fear of flying? And who is the mysterious ninety-five year old man in the red tartan trousers? The Mile is an entertaining alcohol-fuelled stagger down a street that has a lot more to it than tartan rugs and cashmere shops. Join our friends, their hangers-on, and their pursuers, as they take in 300 years of Scottish history. And a skinful of beer and whisky… REVIEW "This is a much-needed injection of booze-soaked banter and comedy into the independence debate. Assured and heartwarming stuff." Doug Johnstone "A witty comedy with a big heart and surprise waiting at every pub stop, The Mile is a whirlwind of laughs, loss and love. If that isn’t enough to get you reading, then you may never find out how Scotland is like a millionaire’s shortcake … " Karyn Dougan, Glasgow Review of Books

    Dunn's landscape at the end of the century embraces the spectrum of urgencies and obsessions that we live with and for. It's a landscape that we share with citizens and spies, revelers and mourners, women who weep, men who keep secrets, and especially with the poet himself.

    Nonetheless in this close community friendships go deep and the pub of an evening is a cheery place, at least until too much drink is taken. Fifteen years ago, Joe McBride left Westerbank under a cloud, and in his absence life has moved on, the secrets he took with him disturbing only occasionally those who were caught up in them. But now Joe McBride is coming home, a changed man, and one who needs to face up to the past before it's too late. The truth about the mysterious death of a young girl fifteen years ago is about to come out, and nothing in Westerbank will ever be quite the same again.

    ‘Hiraeth - A home that never was’ by Mansi Narula Kashyap is a collection of poetry and prose about a home that the author believes does not exist in the real world but still cast a shadow or instil a sense of belongingness towards the same. Each poem will enhance the reader’s imagination, coaxing them to understand the depth of a home that never was.“For just a moment, my heart believes.The home that never was,Still makes me homesick.I do not even remember when we started building it brick by brick?The thieves have come and robbed us of all that we had,Trust, loyalty and love are now just in twisted weaves.”

    S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser at the top of his imaginative and storytelling powers. Here are the richly metaphorical, imagistically masterful, clear and accessible poems for which he has become widely known. Kooser writes for an audience of everyday readers and believes poets "need to write poetry that doesn't make people feel stupid." Each poem in Red Stilts strives to reveal the complex beauties of the ordinary, of the world that's right under our noses. Right under Kooser's nose is rural America, most specifically the Great Plains, with its isolated villages, struggling economy, hard-working people and multiple beauties that surpass everything wrecked, wrong, or in error.

    Here is a volume of poetry approaching Carolyn Forche's The Angel of History as a stark meditation on Blanchot's sense of writing as the "desired, undesired torment which endures everything." Levine engages the traditional resources of lyric poetry in an exploration of historical and cultural landscapes ravaged by imponderable events. Enola Gay's "mission" can seem spiritual, imaginative, and militaristic as the speaker in these poems surveys marshes and fields and a land on the edge of disintegration. Levine sifts the psychological residue that accumulates in the wake of unspeakable acts and so negotiates that terrain between the banality of language and the need to stand witness and to speak. Levine's stunning second book, with its grave cultural implications and its surveillance of a distinctly postmodern malaise, offers multiple readings. Here are compact poems with uncanny power, rhythm, and a strange, formal beauty echoing and renewing the legacy of Wallace Stevens for a new era.

    "The Himalayas Within Him" finds Heart worrying about the sound of his own heartbeat, wondering why it doesn't "blare like a quartet of trombones" as it reflects his "ardent complexity." In "Goodbye to the Hands That Have Touched Him" Heart, after suffering many sleepless nights, decides "that love exists at the root of his problems. Without love his path would be as smooth as a plate of glass and he'd sleep like a kitten." Dividing the Heart poems is the long "Oh, Immobility, Death's Vast Associate, " a jazzy disquisition on human isolation and inaction in the midst of a planet full of people feeling similarly. Throughout Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides Dobyns has painstakingly sculpted straight-forward language into a distinct sound, creating an unforgettable collection of poems that offers readers unexpected revelations about the complexities of the heart.

    26 poems: Tunnel, Dark Corners, Parallel, Press Play, Mundane, Walls, Sunbathing, Broken, Space Traveler, Brilliant, Gloom, Harbor, Fallen, Words, Stargazing, That Great Night, These Eyes, What Defines Me, Screams from Outer Space, Crosshairs, Eclipse, Peace of Mind, Drowning, Corpses, Before I Go, Journey

     Written with incredible honesty and self-knowledge, Between the Lines is a stunning collection of poems from Céline Zabad. Ranging in length from a single line to full pages, her poems mimic at once the brevity and vastness of feeling. Her verse is at times as free as a cloud, other times as solid as stone. Her words are philosophies and feelings in their own rights, on love, loss, loyalty, betrayal, hope, and disappointment—on life. Zabad encapsulates the thrill of love’s first blush and the freezing burn of heartbreak. Her feelings flow freely throughout the collection, lending her poetry uncommon authenticity and power. Nature thrives between the lines of her verse, reminding the reader that tears are as natural as raindrops. Whether you’re looking for new ways to think about your own feelings or are simply passionate about poetry, you’ll find plenty to love in this collection. To better understand the complexities of emotion in yourself and others, you must read Between the Lines.

    Rogue & Kat Savage.

    0-935906-02-9$5.00 / Javan Press

    As the daughter of King Malcolm of Scotland, she has always been expected to achieve great things, and so she was sent to England to receive an education at just seven years old. Now, at fourteen, her aunt wants her to take vows to become a nun. A knight hospitaller wants her to join the fight against the Saracens in the Holy Land. And, her father wants her to marry a man she does not love just for the money and political benefits. But… perhaps she might become queen of England instead? After all, she is rumored to be the only woman to have ever turned the king of England’s head. And anyway, King William is far kinder and prettier than the man her father chose for her. As dawn breaks, she runs away from the abbey without any solid plan. And just as she takes a deep breath and allows her legs to rest, she is found by the king’s little brother, Lord Henry. He won’t let her travel alone. When she protests his company, he forces her in his horse's saddle and rides away with her into the forest. In this stunning tale of Matilda of Scotland's "lost" seven years, great love is lost and found, a kingdom rises, and a queen is made.