Other books that might interest you

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  Red Suitcase

  Naomi Shihab Nye

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  Poet, teacher, essayist, anthologist, songwriter and singer, Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the country's most acclaimed writers. Her voice is generous; her vision true; her subjects ordinary people, and ordinary situations which, when rendered through her language, become remarkable. In this, her fourth full collection of poetry, we see with new eyes-a grandmother's scarf, an alarm clock, a man carrying his son on his shoulders. 
   Narrated by the author.Valentine for Ernest MannYou can’t order a poem like you order a taco.Walk up to the counter and say, "I’ll take two"and expect it to handed back to youon a shiny plate.Still, I like you spirit.Anyone who says, "Here’s my address,write me a poem," deserves something in reply.So I’ll tell a secret instead:poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,they are sleeping. They are the shadowsdrifting across our ceilings the momentbefore we wake up. What we have to dois live in a way that lets us find them.Once I knew a man who gave his wifetwo skunks for a valentine.He couldn’t understand why she was crying."I thought they had such beautiful eyes."And he was serious. He was a serious manwho lived in a serious way. Nothing was uglyjust because the world said so. He reallyliked those skunks. So, he re-invented themas valentines and they became beautiful.At least, to him. And the poems that had been hidingin the eyes of skunks for centuriescrawled out and curled up at his feet.Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give uswe find poems. Check your garage, the odd sockin your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.And let me know.

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  Desree

  Desree

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  Poetry Book Society Recommendation Spring 2025
  The debut poetry collection from award-winning writer and spoken word artist, Desree, Altar explores multifaceted dimensions of sacrifice, challenging its heroism and examining its ties to servility. The poems in Altar urge their protagonists to play neither lion nor lamb, but to live and flourish on their own terms. Each page glimmers with vivid, often devastating vignettes: we witness the resilience of youth, the strength of the Black female body, the complexity of chosen and unchosen family, the sweeping effects of gentrification. Through reflections on Black British identity, queer joy, place and belonging, faith and consent, Desree invites the reader on a journey of reclamation, while her wry wit and disarming tenderness hold us through the necessary storms that mark the way.
  "Gorgeous in its redefining of self" Yomi Sode
  "A collection of wonder and witness. These poems — both powerful and tender — grapple with the parallels of life and death, the body and spirit, loss and love, and demand a response." Rachel Long
  "This is thrilling writing. Unexpected, alive, and curious. Desree enters the page, stage left." Joelle Taylor
  "For those of us who wonder if we've been 'turned off at the wall', Desree's poems act as a hallway: we drop off selves we didn't realise we were carrying, and return, new and re-accepted into our own arms." Kareem Parkins-Brown

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  Wing Over Wing - Poems

  Julie Cadwallader Staub

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  Wing Over Wing clears a path in the midst of everyday life to reveal the holy—whether catching fireflies at night, waiting at a bus stop, or experiencing the death of a loved one. This collection of beautiful poems lives at the intersection of the sacred and the ordinary, from the swirling flight of birds to conversations with the homeless. Wing Over Wing brims with compassion. The reader will find comfort and sustenance, as well as surprise and laughter, in these pages.

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  Gentle Chaos - Poems Tales and...

  Tyler Gaca

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  From the wild imagination of Tyler Gaca, also known as TikTok's Ghosthoney, comes a beautiful compendium of poems, personal stories, and vignettes that explore magic, queerness, Tyler’s unique story, and the enchantment and comfort to be found in the weird, the dark, and the different. In this raw yet enchanting collection of poems and essays, Tyler Gaca dreamily navigates themes of magic and queerness, offering readers an intimate look inside his mind and his worlds, real and imagined. The writings in Gentle Chaos reflect on growing up queer and in love with magic, discovering yourself and your place in the world, and daring to seek out love and hope. The result is a whimsical, vulnerable, and transporting journey into the gentle chaos within us all.

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  Jabberwocky

  Lewis Carroll

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  “Jabberwocky” is one of the most well-known nonsense poems in the English language. Though full of playful made-up words like “brillig,” “mimsy,” and frumious,” the poem still tells a story. A young warrior faces up against the fearsome Jabberwock, armed with a “vorpal blade,” and comes out triumphant: “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” This poem first appeared in the middle of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Carroll’s follow-up to the well-beloved children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

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  Neptune's Projects

  Rishi Dastidar

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  What do you do when you are a god – but powerless and unable to prevent one of your favourite species from their insatiable, accelerating death wish? Do you try to shout louder and more insistently, or instead reinvent yourself as a troubadour of romantic ruin? Such are the dilemmas posed by Rishi Dastidar in his third poetry collection Neptune's Projects, a reshaping of mythology for the climate crisis era which gives bold consideration to the stark choices we face.
  A post-apocalyptic jig and reel, these poems are compelling, deadpan yarns of the sea, full of both fury and fun. In Neptune's Projects the end of humanity is made wry, thrilling – and alive.

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