Other books that might interest you

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  The Usefulness of Hippopotamus -...

  Vincent J. Tomeo

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  I am staring at a blank piece of paper, wondering what to write. Where do I begin? My mind begins to wander—pleasant thoughts of Disney's Fantasia dance in my head. The dancing hippopotamus comes to mind, and this made me laugh. The result: I penned a poem on the hippopotamus from which a chapbook was born: The Usefulness of Hippopotamus: A Humorous Chapbook for Trying Times. 
  One cannot imagine a world without humor. Without humor, the world will be dark, cold, and a sad place, tragically lacking joy, cheerfulness, and laughter. 
  Humor is medicine. During rough times, humor will help lighten and lessen physical and mental anxiety. 
  In challenging times, I chose humor. During the Pandemic, I had to deal with my bladder cancer. In my struggle not to get depressed or dwell in negativity, to find solace, contentment, and peace, I chose to seek out beauty and laugh. 
  In search of happiness, the humor worked its charm, resulting in a treasure chest of joy. So, I wrote my chapbook, The Usefulness of Hippopotamus: A Humorous Chapbook for Trying Times, and discovered humor even among the hippopotami! 
  You can, too. 
  Peace & flowers. 
  Love & light. 
  Vincent J. Tomeo, Author/Poet

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  Building Bridges

  Marie Dunlop

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  Building Bridges is set in 1965 in Anderston, Glasgow and examines the reaction of deserted husband, Billy Speirs, and his family to the return of his estranged wife, Bernie, whose mother has been taken seriously ill.  
  It is a tale of bitterness, betrayal, and the absolute enduring strength of love when a community was sliced up to make way for a stretch of inner city motorway and the Glasgow Kingston Bridge. Just as the earmarking of Anderston as a Glasgow Comprehensive Development Area faced mixed reactions, the couple’s tentative and nervous steps back to one another faced opposition and difficulty and like the opinion of much of the community at that time, it was clear that things were never going to be the same again.  
  The heart was getting ripped out of the place, just as it had been ripped out of Billy. Decisions have to be made, loyalties examined, and painful truths faced. Better days were coming, however, in the promise of new corporation housing, and it is against this backdrop of demolition and renewal that Building Bridges opens.

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  More Songs the Radio Won’t Play...

  Stan Rogal

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  Lyrical poetry inspired by popular songs, Rogal sweeps the reader through the journey of creation.
  		 
  In More Songs the Radio Won’t Play, Stan Rogal takes formerly “popular” tunes (from various genres) and transforms them. Self-referentiality; mashups of the erudite and profane; allusions to other arts and sciences; the insertion and bending of biographical and historical facts; problematic snippets of philosophy and literary theory, quotes, and bastardizations; deploying non- or a-political language to challenge notions of how a poem should work; sampling; and off-kilter humour work together to update Rogal’s playlist for a present-day audience.
  		 
  While his poems unavoidably serve to comment on the world today, Rogal resists a central message. The true emphasis of this collection is on the process of creation. It’s not the destination but the journey that is of significance. Not mere cover versions, not exactly parodies (though parodic), these poems are redactions, mutations, Frankenstein’s monsters … they resemble the original — somewhat — yet are also grossly different.

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  Lost Bodies: Poems between...

  Heng Siok Tian, Phan Ming Yen,...

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  Four writers. 
   
  Three travelling in Portugal. 
   
  One staying behind to care for his ailing mother. 
   
  One long-distance writing affair. 
   
  The passing of the mother together with memories of other losses and absences come together in Lost Bodies, a meditation on the transience of time and love and an invitation to get away—physically or spiritually—from worldly concerns to explore a different history, a different culture, a different light, laced with dreamy scents and the faint calls of fado.

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  Too Much Mirch

  Safia Khan

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  Safia Khan's Too Much Mirch dwells in the ambiguities of human relationships, exploring how people and communities can be lifted up or let down by those around them. Sharp and sensitive in their imagery, these poems apply an empathetic lens to every subject they meet – family members, bullies, a cadaver in an anatomy lesson.

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  If Lost - Poems by Clint Bowman

  Clint Bowman

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  Inspired by the mountains, forests, animals, and people of Appalachia, If Lost is Clint Bowman's exhilarating debut about how these elements collide and struggle to co-exist in an ever-changing landscape. Bowman's poems are a guide through this beautiful, brutal, and often misunderstood world where threats to the region come from all sides. Invasive species strangle the trees around corrupt churches and failing convenience stores, while truckers cry in parking lots and deer contemplate death along the highway. In If Lost, Bowman demonstrates how everyone and everything is lost in some way, but that it's possible to find a way out. 
    
  Praise for If Lost  
  “You can feel the thickness in the air, the smells, and the overgrown nature of it all. A poetry deeply connected to the place from which it comes.” 
  —Keith Zarriello, musician and lead singer of The Shivers 
    
  “In this astounding collection, truckers cry, milkweed and honeysuckle overtake, poinsettias wilt in winter frost, and bear hunters haunt the stories of our conscience...” 
  —Garrett Ashley, author of Periphylla, and Other Deep Ocean Attractions 
    
  “If Lost offers us a starkly honest and rarely seen western North Carolina, with all its diverse species in bitter harmony… We cannot know what the future holds for this delicate region and its people, but these poems will keep you warm and light your way.” 
  —Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface and Other Stories 
    
  “…Bowman encompasses the complexity and beauty of what it means to be from the American South, capturing the quiet, sometimes bleak magic that encompasses his world.”  
  —Thomas Dollbaum, musician

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