Other books that might interest you

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  Death Be Not Proud

  John Donne

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  This week we’re marking the American Memorial Day with eleven readings of a John Donne poem. Memorial Day was conceived as a time to remember military men and women who had lost their lives in war. Kings and presidents come and go and some of the reasons that wars have come about are now lost from memory or are obscured in our history texts.    A consistent aspect of war is that those who fight them are not those who arrange them. The soldiers and sailors who suffer loss of limb, scarred minds or forfeit their lives mostly come from the lower and middle rungs of our societal ladder. They are our sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters.    Once gone, it is the family who notices the empty chair at the family table while society at large knows not their name. Death has captured them and taken them forever from our midst. It has become personal and not a vague philosophical idea. The theme of Donne’s poem is that, though Death is irresistible, it has no cause to be proud. The human spirit and its hope for redemption is indomitable. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 27th, 2006.    (Summary by Robert Garrison)

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  Karawane

  Hugo Ball

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Karawane by Hugo Ball. This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 5th, 2010.Ball wrote his poem "Karawane," which is a German poem consisting of nonsensical words. The meaning however resides in its meaninglessness, reflecting the chief principle behind Dadaism.Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922.[1] The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchistic in nature.(summary from Wikipedia)

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  Despite the Devil - Romantic...

  Shawna James

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  To Stephanie, Andrew Simmons seemed like the perfect man. He was smart, handsome, tall, and athletic. And best of all, he was interested in her. As their romance begins to blossom, the truth about Andrew’s past comes to light. A misguided choice made many years before, hung over him. 
  When they start a family together, Andrew tries to move on from the past and enjoy his family life, but the past still haunts him. As Andrew and Stephanie build a stable and happy home life together, they long for the day they can stop looking over their shoulders. With resilience and perseverance, can they overcome the dark cloud together?

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  How Love is Spelt (NHB Modern...

  Chloë Moss

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  Peta is new in town and ready for whatever London has to throw at her. She's looking for romance, for friendship, for exciting people to lead her on big adventures. But being an independent woman in the new millennium isn't easy, especially when there's a constant reminder of the life you're trying to escape.
  With each new encounter, Peta flirts with what might have been, but has the journey to London put enough distance between her and her past?
  Chloë Moss's play How Love Is Spelt is a fascinating and funny play, which premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2004. It was revived by Brickdust and Project One at Southwark Playhouse in 2019.
  'She wanted spontaneity, adventure… I said I can be spontaneous… I just need a little bit of time to plan.'
  'The finest and most assured writing to be found outside the National Theatre this year... a moving and mature study of love, loneliness and the need to define one's identity... One of the year's undoubted highlights' - Evening Standard
  'Moss's writing evokes these nocturnal collisions beautifully, using silence as powerfully as words, and brittle comedy as deftly as tremendous sadness' - Guardian
  'A remarkably assured new talent. I can't remember a play in recent years that so adroitly captured the difficulty of being young and alone in the capital or did so with such refreshing humour...There's nothing loud or brash about this drama of youthful disillusion, but it's well worth shouting about' - Daily Telegraph

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  Escape Velocity

  Cate McNider

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  Cate McNider's poetry is a remarkable journey through the depths of the human experience. In Escape Velocity, she invites us to explore the uncharted territories of our inner selves and discover what lies beneath the surface. With each poem, she fearlessly confronts her own conditioning and strips away the layers of habit and illusion that obscure our true nature. 
  Her words are a profound meditation on the power of vulnerability and the transformative force of love and understanding. McNider takes us on a journey through the Void, the space within ourselves where we can find the answers to life's most profound questions. 
  Through her daring, honest, and often humorous approach, McNider reminds us that we are all the Source of our own reality. Her poetry is not just a reportage of her own transcendent process, but a call to action for each of us to undertake our own journey of self-discovery. 
  Escape Velocity is not just a collection of poems, but a profound work of art that challenges us to see ourselves and thus the world with new eyes. McNider's courage and insight will leave you potently aware, daring you to take the leap into the unknown and discover the truth that lies within.

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  The Museum of Clear Ideas - Poems

  Donald Hall

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  “With The One Day, this is his best work, a modest, skeptical, and brave poetry that embodies something essential about this late American century.” —Harvard Review 
   
  This is Donald Hall’s most advanced work, extending his poetic reach even beyond his recent volumes. Conflict dominates this book, and conflict unites it. Hall takes poetry as an instrument for revelation, whether in an elegy for a (fictional) contemporary poet, or in the title series of poems, whose form imitates the first book of the Odes of Horace. The book’s final section, “Extra Innings,” moves with poignancy to questions about the end of the game. 
   
  “A stunning volume of testamentary verse . . . an often perfect American blend of rue and buoyancy, narrative verve and grace.” —The New Yorker 
   
  “Donald Hall is our finest elegist. The Museum of Clear Ideas is as original, idiosyncratic, and un-museumlike a poetic work as we are likely to see for a long time to come.” —Richard Tillinghast, The New Criterion 
   
  “Hall’s poems make ‘durable relics’ of late twentieth-century life in much the same way that Byron’s Don Juan does for the early nineteenth. The ‘clear ideas,’ however, are timeless.” —Beloit Poetry Journal 
   
  “These are some of the darkest lines Donald Hall has ever composed. They move through aching poignancy through illness diagnosed, sorrow, and poignant revelation, yet the final chord is not one of despair.” —Robert Taylor, Boston Globe 
   
  “A collection of powerful new poems . . . Hall’s voice is more mature and classically spare than ever, offering revelatory glimpses of wisdom.” —Publishers Weekly 
   
  “A brilliantly inventive tour de force . . . A significant and engaging book.” —Library Journal

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