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  Sorrow Tears and Blood - Poetry...

  David Onamade

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  David’s book is one of despair and hope; one that paints a picture of our society that is both dark and broken up by fleeting rays of light. From his plight on the streets in one of England’s richest regions, to the interactions of people he observes and encounters every day, to the impacts of Covid-19 and the changing seasons – this is poetry and prose at its most powerful. It is a book that reveals the double-talk of homeless service provision – a society that consigns people as worthless without knowing their backgrounds; which assumes that homelessness is a choice rather than a predicament. It is impossible not to have read this book and come away changed: to feel the biting need to make a difference and sense of injustice as to why so many individuals – people who could otherwise fulfil their potential, for the benefit of others as well as themselves – are thrown cruelly to the fringes. 
   

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  The Pre-Raphaelite Poets - A...

  William Morris, Dante Gabriel...

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  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood began as a group of painters, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, who wished to reject the stern and academic strictures of current painting and return to the simpler and more uncomplicated days before the Italian High Renaissance and the days of Raphael. 
  The movement was short lived but very influential and, as well, was taken up by a number of different arts. 
  For poetry, it was a major movement and, because of its depiction of pleasures of the flesh, was, at the time, heavily criticised.  One critic called it ‘The Fleshly School of Poetry’. However, the sensationalist aside, it unleashed works that had instant appeal.  The movement pushed back against contemporary writings which seemed full of tradition and the more mundane problems of society.  
  To exploit and gain attention for their ideas, the Brotherhood started their own periodical; The Germ, which, although it only lasted four numbers did much to bring them attention.  
  Its devotion to the Mediaeval, to symbols and a more naturalistic and detailed approach to poetry were refreshing, especially as the movement sprang up from a Victorian Society that believed morals should be strictly managed, or at least in public. 
  The Pre-Raphaelites as an organised group eventually went their own way but had behind them works which heavily influenced painting and literature for decades to come. 
  With poets of the calibre of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his sister Christina Georgina Rossetti, William Morris, Charles Algernon Swinburne and George Meredith poetry of great beauty, tenderness and even rawness was placed on the page. 
   This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing.  Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.

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  The Big Smoke

  Adrian Matejka

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  Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson 
   
   
   
  The legendary Jack Johnson (1878–1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers—and white America—to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

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  The Soul We Share

  Ricky Ray

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  Winner of the 2023 Aryamati Collection Competition.
  Through visceral and vulnerable poetry, Ricky Ray meditates on the pain and gratitude that arise from a keenly felt awareness of our fleeting existence. Recognizing his humanity as a facet of natural processes, Ricky measures the ache of living in a disabled body against the joy of \'being lived\' by the places he inhabits. As we accompany him and his soul dog, Addie, through the scenic woodlands of New England, the concrete jungle of Manhattan, and the swamps of the Deep South, the lines between humans, animals and nature begin to blur and move in concert. Shifting between forms both physical and elemental, we read of an existence lived not 'upon / but as one' with the Earth, \'whose being we are throughout and beyond our brief sojourn as human\'. At the heart of this collection is the transformative experience of Ricky's life with an old brown dog, which teaches that soul isn't merely something we possess—it's an animacy deeply shared.

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  The Poetry of Damon Runyon - We...

  Damon Runyon

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  Alfred Damon Runyan was born on 4th October 1880, in Manhattan, Kansas.  
   
  When Runyon was two his father was forced to sell his newspaper and the family moved eventually settling in Pueblo, Colorado where Runyon spent his youth.  
   
  By most accounts, he attended school only through the fourth grade and then worked for his father in the newspaper trade.  
   
  In 1898 Runyon enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Spanish–American War. After his service he returned to Colorado and worked for the local newspapers.  
   
  By 1910 he had moved to New York to work for Hearst newspapers, writing a daily column.  He was soon promoted to be the Hearst newspapers' baseball columnist and developed his trademark viewpoint of writing up the eccentric and the unusual, whether on the field or in the stands. 
   
  But Runyon also wrote poetry, plays, essays and, of course, his short stories with his famous ‘Runyonesque’ characters who were funny, gritty and instantly memorable, all distilled into black and white type. 
   
  Of course, the cliché about newspapermen and writers is that they are heavy drinkers, chain-smokers, gamblers and obsessively chase women with a sideline in gathering info and only getting something written just before the deadline hits.  And that, pretty much, was Runyon’s life. 
   
  In 1938 he developed throat cancer which would leave him unable to speak but he continued to work at a ferocious pace, pursuing a Hollywood career as writer and producer at MGM, Universal and RKO studios. 
   
  Alfred Damon Runyon died in New York City on 10th December 1946 from throat cancer.  He was 66. 
   
  His ashes were scattered from a plane over Broadway.   
   
  In his early short Story ‘The Defense of Strikerville’ Runyon takes up the cause of workers’ rights as it comes up against the nasty tactics of big-dog capitalism.  
   
  Runyon’s poems brilliantly illustrate his style and ideas with works that are individual, observational, heavy on the vernacular and bring a rarely seen poetic talent to our attention.  
   
  1 - The Poetry of Damon Runyon - An Introduction 
  2 - The Song of the Strike-Breakers by Damon Runyon 
  3 - Song of the Steel Worker by Damon Runyon 
  4 - The Song of the Bullet by Damon Runyon 
  5 - A Song of the Panama Canal by Damon Runyon 
  6 - A Song of the Rails by Damon Runyon 
  7 - The Song of King Barleycorn 
  8 - The King of Moo by Damon Runyon 
  9 - The Song of Silence by Damon Runyon 
  10 - Song O' the Lost Trains by Damon Runyon 
  11 - The Song of the Saddle by Damon Runyon 
  12 - The Ghosts of the Great White Way by Damon Runyon 
  13 - The Softest Town by Damon Runyon 
  14 - The Ballad of the Big Town by Damon Runyon 
  15 - Ballads of a Beach Comber by Damon Runyon 
  16 - When the Ships Go Home by Damon Runyon 
  17 - Dream of a Drowsy Day by Damon Runyon 
  18 - Ballad of Hop Looey 
  19 - The Ladies in the Trenches - a Solider Song of the Sulu Isles by Damon Runyon 
  20 - Nostalgia by Damon Runyon 
  21 - A Divorce Problem by Damon Runyon 
  22 - The Boy She Used to Know by Damon Runyon 
  23 - Roses of a Dream by Damon Runyon 
  24 - Homeward Bound by Damon Runyon 
  25 - The Spirit of You by Damon Runyon 
  26 - Ghosts by Damon Runyon 
  27 - Ballad of Lonely Graves by Damon Runyon 
  28 - Pal, Algeria 1910 by Damon Runyon 
  29 - Requiem by Damon Runyon

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  FAME & Other Disasters

  Maria P Frino

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  FAME & Other Disasters by Maria P Frino is a celebrity drama novel and is an adult contemporary  suitable for readers 18+ 
  Fame is a double-edged sword, and nowhere is this more precarious than in the cutthroat world of television hosting. 
  Molly Edwards and Emma Bears Jones are inseparable—two powerhouses of television, hosting rival shows on Shine Ch33 and BBS12. But years of friendship crumble in a single night, a scandal sparked by a reckless decision at an industry party that sends their lives spiralling out of control. 
  In a haze of drugs and poor judgment, both women end up in bed with Richard—Emma’s lover. Molly wakes first, horrified to find herself naked between her best friend and Richard. 
  Desperate to forget the whole thing, Emma tries to bury the incident, but Richard isn't willing to let it go. He’s drawn to Molly’s tender touch and wants more, igniting a chain of betrayal. 
  When Emma uncovers their continued tryst, her fury explodes across social media, transforming a private mistake into a very public spectacle. Apologies from Molly go unanswered, and the vicious back-and-forth between the two goes viral, dragging their careers into the mud. Sponsors pull out, viewers abandon them, and both women are left without a show, their hard-won careers evaporating overnight. 
  Crushed under the weight of scandal and failure, Molly flees to Mumbai, India, seeking solace and purpose, hoping to mend her shattered life. Here she had helped build an orphanage during an extended gap year, Tulip Treasures. But redemption is never easy, and a near-fatal accident threatens to take away what little she has left. 
  As Molly fights to reclaim her life, the question remains: Can she and Emma ever reconcile, or will the wounds of betrayal be too deep to heal?

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