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  The Black Riders - and other lines

  Stephen Crane

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  In 1894, when Stephen Crane was just twenty-two years old, he showed his friend, Hamlin Garland, a set of poems in manuscript. Garland showed them to John D. Barry, who arranged for a public reading of the new work. Crane could not summon up the courage to read the poems, or even attend the reading; he waited outside on the street while Barry read them. The publishing firm of Copeland and Day took on the work, and Stephen Crane was a published poet. Six months later, The Red Badge of Courage appeared, and Stephen Crane's literary career was on its way. He still didn't have enough money to live on, but his work had reached the public. Just six years later, he was dead of tuberculosis. 
  Today, over a hundred years later, his poems are incredibly fresh. Torn by a sense of his own sin, outraged by the capricious behavior of a God he rejected, his poems brim with bitteness, yet carry with them a sane and sarcastic humor as well. Tremendously laconic and always moving directly to the point, he demands his listener's full attention, and rewards it.  A Freshwater Seas production.

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  Miss Julie & Creditors (NHB...

  August Strindberg

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  August Strindberg's classic portrayals of secrets and lies, seduction and power – both written in the summer of 1888 – in brilliant new versions by Howard Brenton.
  Miss Julie begins as a flirtatious game between the daughter of a wealthy landowner and her father's manservant, and gradually descends, over the course of a long and sultry Midsummer's Eve, into a savage fight for survival.
  In Creditors, young artist Adolf is deeply in love with his new wife Tekla – but a chance meeting with a suave stranger shakes his devotion to the core. Passionate, dangerously funny, and enduringly perceptive, Strindberg considered this wickedly enjoyable black comedy his masterpiece.
  Both plays premiered in co-productions between Jermyn Street Theatre, London, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, directed by Jermyn Street's Artistic Director Tom Littler.
  'Riveting... as real and sensational now as ever and as socially and politically pertinent' - Guardian on Miss Julie
  'Superlative… an unexpected treat of the highest order' - Evening Standard (Best Productions of 2017) on Miss Julie

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  The Bhakti Poet Saints

  Mirabai, Kabir, Guru Nanak

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  Whilst Europe endured the Dark Ages in the 6th & 7th Centuries devotees of Shiva and Vishnu in Southern India were creating the Bhakti Movement.  Some of these exponents, as in our volume, were bestowed with the title of saint but some had the additional title of sant, swami or goswami. 
   
  Broadly speaking, Bhakti poetry, as in Hinduism itself, is divided into ‘Nirguna’, the idea that the divine is formless as exampled by Kabir and ‘Saguna’ which interprets the divine as having physical form as captured by Mirabai.  
   
  The rapid spread, of the Bhakti movement, with its theme of love and devotion to God, proffered by these rebellious poet saints, did, over the following centuries, meld with much needed Hindu reforms and went to the heart of human existence.  These ‘God possessing’ rather than ‘God fearing’ poets rejected hierarchies and intermediaries in their spiritual devotion and were critical of rules, regulations and ritual observances administered by Brahmin priests in the sacred but elitist court and temple Sanskrit.   
   
  Their poems, in their local language, emphasised personal devotion as a route to salvation with kind deeds and a humble life rather than ritual mediation, stretched the fabric of society.  They were all from lower castes and many were women giving the movement an egalitarian spirit that helped reinforce the message that god’s love was all-encompassing for every person willing to surrender to the divine.   
   
  Furthermore, their verse was accessible, simple, innovative with new poetic forms and often expressed in songs with a fierce passion and ecstasy that demonstrated the movement’s focus on inner, mystical and authentic devotion and humility.  Impromptu performances with provocative outbursts of singing and dancing in unconventional settings or public gatherings evolved into poetic presentations and community recitals as the rapid popularity of the movement spread.  Although the language is every day and simple, many verses carry undercurrents of complex ideas, philosophical and psychological dilemmas, nuance and humour. 
  1 - The Bhakti Poet Saints - An Introduction 
  2 - His Ears Ringeth by Sambandar 
  3 - Thiruppavi (An Extract) by Andal 
  4 - Tiruvasiriyam by Nammalvar 
  5 - Navada Bhakti in An Untainted Heart by Gangasati 
  6 - Show Me Your Way Out by Akka Mahadevi 
  7 - Would A Circling Surface Vulture by Akka Mahadevi 
  8 - The True Name is Like Sandalwood by Namdev 
  9 - Amrutanubhav (An Extract) by Dnyaneshwar 
  10 - Vakh - If in the Flux of Time by Lal Ded 
  11 - Vakh - They Who Have Gained Experience by Lal Ded 
  12 - Acceptance by Janabai 
  13 - Where Shall I Go by Ramananda 
  14 - Vaishnav by Narsinh Mehta 
  15 - Pointless It Is To Lament by Narsinh Mehta 
  16 - Illusion and Reality by Kabir 
  17 - Song 6 - The Moon by Kabir 
  18 - I Laugh When I Hear That the Fish in the Water is Thirsty by Kabir 
  19 - It is the Mercy of My True Guru by Kabir 
  20 - Song 1 - Oh Servant Where Dost Thou Seek Me by Kabir 
  21 - Song 69 - If God Be Within the Mosque by Kabir 
  22 - The Light of the Sun by Kabir 
  23 - You Are Me and I Am You by Ravidas 
  24 - The Name Alone Is The Truth by Ravidas 
  25 - How to Escape by Ravidas 
  26 - Dhanasri Measure by Guru Nanak 
  27 - Gauri Dipaki Measure by Guru Nanak 
  28 - Shikshashtakam by Chaitanya 
  29 - Mine is Gopal by Mirabai 
  30 - Beloved Mohan by Mirabai 
  31 - Mira is Steadfast by Mirabai 
  32 - I Will Sing the Praises by Mirabai 
  33 - O Deluded Ones by Mirabai 
  34 - Enjoy the Company of True Saints by Mirabai 
  35 - Listen by Mirabai 
  36 - Sister Without the Lord I Cannot Carry On by Mirabai 
  37 - Hanuman Chalisa by Tulsidas 
  38 - To Arrange Words by Tu

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  To Two Little Sisters of the Poor

  Aline Kilmer

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  Aline Murray Kilmer (August 1, 1888 – October 1, 1941), was an American poet, children's book author, and essayist, and the wife and widow of poet and journalist Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918).Aline attended the Rutgers College Preparatory School with her husband, Alfred Joyce Kilmer and married him soon after his graduation from Columbia University in 1908. In their short marriage, lasting 10 years, her husband had achieved fame as a poet, literary critic and among Catholic circles as America's most prominent Catholic writer. After his death in World War I, Aline began publishing her own poetry and a few children's books. Today, her work is largely forgotten. - Summary by Wikipedia

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  Big Sexy Lunch

  Roxy Dunn

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  Big Sexy Lunch is an irreverent, entertaining account of millennial philosophy and relationships. Roxy Dunn's observational wit and reflective self-doubt muse on sex, singledom, and falling in and out of love. There's a directness and an honesty to these poems which humorously scrutinises the conflicts and contradictions of being attached to someone and our ongoing appetite for fulfilment.

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  Shining City (NHB Modern Plays)

  Conor McPherson

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  A brilliant, haunting play from the multi-award winning author of The Weir.
  Ian has left the priesthood to become a therapist. John is one of his first clients. John's wife has been killed in a car accident, and he keeps receiving visits from her ghost. John, with Ian's help, starts to recover. But what begins as an unusual encounter becomes a desperate struggle between the living and the dead - a struggle which will shape and define both of them for the rest of their lives.
  Shining City premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2004.
  'moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping ... scenes that provoke great, generous gales of laughter, others that send a shiver of fear down the spine ... riveting' Telegraph
  'quiet, haunting and absolutely glorious... as close to perfection as contemporary playwriting gets' New York Times
  'compulsively gripping... McPherson brilliantly reconciles the mundane and the metaphysical' Guardian

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