The Best American Poetry 2008 (Best American Poetry)


Charles Wright - 1990
    This year's edition was edited by one of the most admired and acclaimed poets of his generation, Charles Wright. Known for his meditative and beautiful observations of landscape, change, and time,Wright brings his particular sensibility to this year's anthology, which contains an ecumenical slant that is unprecedented for the series. He has gathered an astonishing selection of work that includes new poems by Carolyn Forché, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, Frank Bidart, Frederick Seidel, Patti Smith, and Kevin Young and showcases a dazzling array of rising stars like Joshua Beckman, Erica Dawson, and Alex Lemon. With captivating and revelatory notes from the poets on their works and sage and erudite introductory essays by Wright and series editor David Lehman, The Best American Poetry 2008 will be read, discussed, debated, and prized for years to come.

Old Man Johnson (Kindle Single)


Andrew Kevin Walker - 2015
    in this off-kilter, coming-of-age romantic comedy.Abbie, a twenty-something free spirit who is dreading her looming parent-mandated enrollment in graduate school, makes a semi-annual pilgrimage to visit her perfectly well meaning and perfectly boring grandfather, Henry. But Abbie is roused out of her quarter-life crisis when she meets her grandfather's persnickety, oddball friend, Johnson. With his cane and elderly clothing, he is the very picture of a bitter old man. The problem is, Johnson is 23 years old, and apparently completely delusional. Also a problem: Abbie is falling in love with him. The first novel from screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, OLD MAN JOHNSON is for the old (and young) at heart.Cover design by Kristen Radtke.Cover painting by Mark Allison.

Available Light


Marge Piercy - 1988
    They celebrate the wonders of nature and explore the nature of love and friendship.

Home Burial


Michael McGriff - 2012
    Whether tender or hard-hitting, McGriff juxtaposes natural images of deep forests, creeks, coyotes, and crows against the harsher oil-grease realities of blue-collar life, creating poems that read like folk tales about the people working in grain mills, forests, and factories."New Civilian"The new law says you can abandon your childin an emergency room,no questions asked. The young fathercarries the sleeping boythrough the hospital doors.Later, alone, parked at the boat basin,he takes a knife from his pocket,cuts an unfiltered cigarette in two,lights the longer half in his mouth.He was a medic in the war.In his basement are five bronze eaglesthat once adorned the wallsof a dictator's palace.Michael McGriff attended the University of Oregon; the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in creative writing; and Stanford University, where he was a Stegner Fellow. He is the co-founding editor and publisher of Tavern Books and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Japanese Haiku


Matsuo Bashō - 1955
    Beloved translator Peter Beilenson’s goal was twofold: to craft a book of haiku accessible to anyone, and to render his best guess at what the poets would have written in English. His translations preserve the sublime spirit of each verse, conjuring vivid visual and emotional impressions in spare words.Haiku icon Basho is represented amply here, as are imagery-virtuoso Buson and wry, warm, painfully human Issa. The verses of Shiki, Joso, Kyorai, Kikaku, Chora, Gyodai, Kakei, Izen, and others also appear, all illuminated by lovely woodblock prints. Ranging from exquisite (In the sea surf edge/Mingling with the bright small shells…/Bush-clover petals –Basho) to bittersweet (Dead my fine hopes/And dry my dreaming, but still…/Iris, blue each spring –Shushiki) to silly (Dim the grey cow comes/Mooing, mooing, and mooing/Out of the morning mist –Issa), this collection will stir your senses and your heart.

Girly Man


Charles Bernstein - 2006
    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.

Poetry of the Thirties


Robin Skelton - 1964
    But from within their strongly defined unity of ideals, an astonishingly varied body of poetry emerged.Robin Skelton has arranged the poetry to make an illuminating ‘critical essay’ of the period, and in his introduction he brilliantly probes the moods and mores of an intensely troubled and creative decade.

Renascence and Other Poems


Edna St. Vincent Millay - 1917
    Vincent Millay (1892–1950) have been long admired for the lyric beauty that is especially characteristic of her early works. "Renascence," the first of her poems to bring her public acclaim, was written when she was nineteen. Now one of the best-known American poems, it is a fervent and moving account of spiritual rebirth.In 1917, "Renascence" was incorporated into her first volume of poetry, which is reprinted here, complete and unabridged, from the original edition. The 23 works in this first volume are fired with the romantic and independent spirit of youth that Edna St. Vincent Millay came to personify. In addition to "Renascence," this volume includes 16 other early lyric poems — "Interim," "Sorrow," "Ashes of Life," "Three Songs of Shattering," "The Dream," "When the Year Grows Old," and others, including six sonnets, to which Millay brought great distinction throughout her career.

The Love Poems of Rumi


Rumi
    This volume consists of new translations edited by Deepak Chopra to evoke the rich mood and music of Rumi's love poems. Exalted yearning, ravishing ecstasy, and consuming desire emerge from these poems as powerfully today as they did on their creation more than 700 years ago.'These poems reflect the deepest longings of the human heart as it searches for the divine. They celebrate love. Each poetic whisper is urgent, expressing the desire that penetrates human relationships and inspires intimacy with the self, silently nurturing an affinity for the Beloved. Both Fereydoun Kia, the translator, and I hope that you will share the experience of ravishing ecstasy that the poems of Rumi evoked in us. In this volume we have sought to capture in English the dreams, wishes, hopes, desires, and feelings of a Persian poet who continues to amaze, bewilder, confound, and teach, one thousand years after he walked on this earth' - Deepak Chopra

The Blizzard Voices


Ted Kooser - 1986
    The Blizzard Voices is based on the actual reminiscences of the survivors as recorded in documents from the time and written reminiscences from years later. Here are the haunting voices of the men and women who were teaching school, working the land, and tending the house when the storm arrived and changed their lives forever.

Bad Boy Billionaires Double Collection, Vols. 1 - 8


Judy Angelo - 2012
    1 - 8):TAMED BY THE BILLIONAIRE - Vol. 1Roman Steele - The business tycoon who has the daunting task of taming the spoiled princess.MAID IN THE U.S.A. - Vol. 2Pierce D'Amato - The software billionaire who thinks he's in control but instead finds himself at the mercy of an angelic four year old and a dark-eyed French beauty who steals his heart.BILLIONAIRE'S ISLAND BRIDE - Vol. 3Dare DeSouza - The owner of a line of Caribbean resorts who tries to teach our beloved heroine a lesson she'll never forget...but then ends up learning the greatest lesson of his life.DANGEROUS DECEPTION - Vol. 4Storm Hunter - He loves motorcycles, fast cars and now he's got to add one more item to his list of loves: Danielle Swift. Dani has a charm he tries to resist but this committed bachelor is no match for this fiercely independent woman who's like none he's met before.TO TAME A TYCOON - Vol. 5Enrico Megalos - A shipping tycoon with a big problem but one which 'lion tamer', Asia Miller, is determined to fix.SWEET SEDUCTION - Vol. 6Jake McKoy - Billionaire author, philanthropist and recluse - a man with a past that is tearing him apart. Will Samantha Fox be the woman to pull him out of his shell?DADDY BY DECEMBER - Vol. 7Drake Duncan - Billionaire investor, and a man determined to win the love of his life: a woman who is just as determined...to stay the heck out of his way.TO CATCH A MAN (IN 30 DAYS OR LESS) - Vol. 8Stone Hudson - Owner of Hudson Broadcasting Corporation, Stone is thrown for a loop when he meets a woman gutsy enough to laugh at him. And then she turns into a temptress. How can he resist?Alpha males at their best - which one will you fall in love with?

The Butcher's Husband and Other Stories


Amy Cross - 2019
     A suspicious husband sets out to discover what his wife really does late at night in her shop. A man starts a new job guarding the entrance to a pier at night. An abandoned house hides a sinister – and disgusting – secret in its basement. A young girl waits for a message from her dead mother, and then she finds something stranger in the freezer. The Butcher's Husband and Other Stories features the new short stories The Butcher's Husband, Tongue, The Pier and The Butcher's Husband II, as well as revised versions of The Seagull and A Perfect Death, and a new novella titled Larry.

Primed for Sin: A Contemporary Romance Box Set


Sarah J. Brooks - 2019
    Brooks! All five standalone full-length novels feature protective alpha males that fight for the women of their dreams. No matter if accidental fake marriages, surprise baby gifts or second chances - this collection has everything you need for long and steamy nights in your bedroom! Book 1 – Never Over You Alright, before you hear his side, let me tell you mine. I was just cleaning his room. I swear that’s it! I mean, he’s my boss for Pete’s sake. But Anthony came out of the shower dripping wet and naked from head to toe. I tried to look away, but IT was right there. And boy was it happy to see me. That’s so not my fault, right? Cute butt, killer abs, bubblegum lips that were begging for a kiss. How could I say no? Turns out he’s had a crush on me since high school. His dad’s freaking out, but Anthony’s got his own billions. So big, bad Daddy Whore-bucks can kiss my tight little… you get the idea. But I think Anthony’s having second thoughts. Will he be my sweetheart or leave me heartbroken? Book 2 – Hate To Want You Oh My Gorgeous eyes! Is that Xander–freaking– Selby? Bad boy muscle-man with a gargantuan-sized… bank account. Wow what a dirty little mind you’ve got there. Be patient. I’m still getting to his best parts. There’s a heart of gold hidden under muscles the size of New York City. He's got the face of an angel and moves like the devil. The first time I saw him my legs went to Jell-O, and I got all tongue-tied. Now tell me something, and be honest. Is it in bad taste to tie up your boss with a garter belt? Or run your tongue up and over his mountain and valley abs? Book 3 – Let’s Play Pretend “Of course I’ll pretend to be your wife.” I can’t believe these words came out of my mouth when my sister’s lawyer asked me to be his fake-wife. I don't like his plan to fake it at all, but desperate situations need desperate measures. Although I have enough to deal with on my own, I’d do anything for my family. Well, maybe I can take this lemon and make lemonade. After all, acting like I’m in love with Jonathan is easy. Too easy. The way he looks at me, touches me, protects me. It just feels so unbelievably good. All of a sudden, I'm not sure if this is fake anymore... Book 4 – Protecting Her The billions in my bank account are worthless if I can’t save her. There are times in your life when one decision can change everything. Mine was to risk my life for the woman of my dreams. Millie. Once I saw her, I knew it’d be her and no one else. Her gaze calls out to the hero in me. Her touches awaken the man. The problem? I’m not the only one who wants her. And her enemies will do everything to get her. Even the unthinkable. If they try to hurt her, I will give them nothing but pain. It’s time for this to end. There can only be one winner. Book 5 – Unexpected Love It was supposed to be a one-night stand. Now I’m carrying his baby. Oh-oh. I guess fate has a way of writing its own stories.

Love Letters of Great Men


John C. Kirkland - 2008
    Complete, actual love letters of great men like Lord Byron, John Keats and Voltaire. Leaders like Henry VIII, George Washington, and Napoleon, who wrote to his beloved Josephine, "I awake consumed with thoughts of you..." Artists like van Gogh, Mozart, and Beethoven, who famously penned, "Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved..." Dozens of intimate letters, coupled with over a score of period illustrations. Plus fascinating biographies, and insights into the couples' relationships-how they got there, the obstacles they faced, and what happened next. Poet warriors, from the first through the twentieth century, including: Ovid, Sir Walter Raleigh, Goethe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Shelley, Robert Browning, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Pierre Curie, George Bernard Shaw, Jack London, Admiral Peary, Woodrow Wilson, and many more.

Slanky: Poems


Mike Doughty - 2002
    Doughty’s poems are at once absurdist and matter-of-fact; the images he conjures are thrown into high relief through cutting wordplay. In a series of prose poems about showbiz, he reimagines Cookie Monster as a burned-out suicide, and cheesy talk-show host Joe Franklin as a cross-dressing witness to the apocalypse. And in “For Charlotte, Unlisted,” he wrenchingly tracks the elusive memory of a faded romance.