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Beautiful Obstacles by Diane Averill
"These are deeply felt poems with traces of the soul all through
them. It does my heart good to know the book, these poems, are in
the world. They bless the reader who comes upon them. Vivid, startling,
committed, these poems are gifts Diane has received and in turn
gave to us." – Li-Young Lee Amazon
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The Perfume of Leaving, by KB Ballentine
Winner of the 2016 Blue Light Book Award.
In Celtic spirituality thin places are where the physical and spiritual,
the visible and invisible, merge. Ballentine's work is full of such
places. Her writing weaves sensual beauty, transparent emotions,
and language that sings - poems running wild in the landscape of
the heart. author's
site Amazon
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What Comes of Waiting, by KB Ballentine
KB Ballentine weaves an astounding tenderness in vision and voice.
Her poems are elegant jewels, with a powerful sense of place in
the Appalachian mountains. Her vision is sometimes devastating,
and always full of a sensual beauty, transparent emotions, and language
that sings. Her poems will call you to you see the world in a different
way. author's
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Falling into Flowers, by Lynne Barnes
2017 Rainbow Awards Best Gay & Lesbian Poetry
Falling into Flowers invokes a powerful sense of history, sculpted with tender, goose-bump evoking details, depicting the South in the 1950s and '60s and the Haight-Ashbury commune scene after the Summer of Love. This book is a journey from marshes of grief into flats full of idealistic hippies in the City of St. Francis, witnessing the events that helped shape the era of the Flower Generation.
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The Scent of Water, by Patricia Barone
The Scent of Water has the memorable imagery, engaging
perceptions, and heightened language we have a right to expect in
genuine poetry. Patricia Barone has united poems of the personal
with poems that engage the larger world and its chaos. This is a
book of water, especially the Mississippi and the lives it nourishes.
Amazon
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Schooled Lives – Poems By Two Brothers, by Barry Benson
and Steve Benson
"The Benson brothers have put together not only a fine book
of poems well worth keeping close but also a strong testament of
faith in those subtleties of blood that can elevate the ordinary
into song." Gary Gildner . . . "This is what poetry was
meant to be, neither overly-sentimental nor veiled in obscure imagery.
The poems read like music you have discovered as you search across
the radio dial. Once found you stay tuned, turning the pages for
more. This is adult poetry with risky passion, psychological pain,
sensual thirst and the ache of longing." Amazon
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Poems by the Skunk River Valley Boys, by Barry Benson and Steve
Benson
The joy of reading Poems By The Skunk River Valley Boys by Barry
and Steve Benson is to watch grown men pay such careful attention
to the world. At once flirty, funny, and philosophical... these
two brothers play a brisk poetic ping-pong across the margins and
gutters of their outstanding new book. Amazon
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Oracles for Night-Blooming Eccentrics, by Nancy Berg
Winner of the 2009 Blue Light Book Award
"Right out of the headlines, participant in, on and of the
edges of the dangerous and 'bejeweled' world, listener of sages
ubiquitous, public radio opinionated, cable tv hysterical, spinning
on the deck of the luxury liner of night itself . . . and a penchant
for small dogs and oracular insomnia, this is Nancy Berg's poetry,
seeking its soulmate inside an emerald and unlike anything else
being written, 'crackling like early electricity,' heavy with art
. . . abundant with literary grace and charm." – Rustin
Larson author's
site Amazon
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The Return of the Bees, by Marianne Betterly
Marianne Betterly is an award-winning poet who writes about nature,
love, loss, the streets of San Francisco, fairy tales and the synchronicity
of events. A believer in auguries, old and new, she loves to discover
hidden meaning floating on a double latte, in a swarm of bees or
in a murder of crows. Amazon
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Poetry for the Leader Inside You: A Search and Rescue Mission for the Heart and Soul, by Dale Biron
Dale Biron uses poetry as a path for soul retrieval. Over the past 25 years, he has coached an extraordinary number of successful leaders and teams, fulfilling his mission to support clients in both their work and personal lives. Using bold, powerful language, he is transforming how timeless narratives unleash the imagination, and touch the heart and soul. Amazon
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Weavings, by Mary Ellen Branan
Winner, 2011 Peace Corps Writers Poetry Award
Mary Ellen Branan served with the Peace Corps in Poland from 1994
to 1996. Her poems "return again and again to test what stands
between us, never quite giving up on what might connect us. They
cherish contact as well as the possibility of genuine sympathy,
proving the tender spot between the self and the other, either human
or animal. Weavings is a quiet, important book of poems."
- Richard Lyons. "Mary Branan's work chronicles life ... with
a warmth and sophistication that only time and artistic sensitivity
can bring." - Karla K. Morton, Texas Poet Laureate Amazon
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This Moment's Daughter, by June Rachuy Brindell
June Rachuy Brindel, beloved author of Ariadne and Phaedra,
was a prolific poet. She collaborated on songs with her husband,
composer Bernard Brindel. She had numerous poems published in literary
magazines, and this is her first full-length collection of poems.
The wise woman voice of her novels sings on every page.
Amazon
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Flying Backbone, by Christopher Buckley
Flying Backbone collects Christopher Buckley's poems from 1979
through 2007 responding to the life and paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe.
Buckley explains that he was compelled by "The vitality she
found in everything-from bones in the desert to skyscrapers in Manhattan
– the way the work suggests a practical cast, one that cherishes
the earth and praises the strength of the human spirit as it endures
here." "He has an exquisite ear for language... –
Library Journal Amazon
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Dreaming of France, by Kerry Tepperman Campbell
2017 Blue Light Book Award
Kerry Tepperman Campbell's brilliant debut delves into the imaginations of American women who are fascinated with France. These jewel‑like vignettes and prose poems weave their way between an imagined world and a real one. The reader will be swept away by these seductive vignettes, set in a world where archetypes hover and even small moments become indelible. Amazon
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The Holy Trinity of Chiles, by Scott Caputo
"Join Scott Caputo on a pilgrimage where we are offered nothing
less than the full measure of being human. Accessible, these poems
are made from the whole cloth of experience. Caputo never shies
away from his religion or the marketplace. Astonishment lies down
with humor. In Holy Trinity of Chiles the wanderer and the word-lover
find nourishment." -Kit Kennedy author's
site
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When I Pick Up My Wings from the Dry Cleaners, by Lisa Cihlar
Winner of the 2013 Blue Light Poetry Prize, Cihlar's poetry is
full of muscle and sinew, power and verve, a voice so undeniable
that it wraps itself around your synaptic connections and becomes
indelible, essential. This is poetry of the highest order. Her music
will carpe diem your mind; her characters, larger than life ...
A new poetic powerhouse is in town. Amazon
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Between the Years, by Lynn Cohen
“Lynn Carrroll Cohen's poems combine a confessional straightforwardness and a formal sharpness in a unique way. Her poems deconstruct the presumable difference between them while also maintaining it . . . Cohen shows how by casting experience in the forms in which we live it – a dinner, a glance, a blandishment over a glass of wine. . . . A marriage of two minds in the mind of a single voice‑‑compelling, distinct, and true.” - Perry Meisel Amazon
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Dreams and Dreamers, by Lynn Cohen
“Lynn Cohen’s poems are tender elegies for lost youth,
passion and ease. Graceful and economical, these lyrics offer bright
glimpses of city and country, travel and remembered haunts. They
are stories in miniature, deftly moving back and forth in time,
lit with flashes of insight. Childhood anticipates future scars;
middle age looks back to simpler ardor. Cohen uses a compact, elegant
style to create a lucid world of longing.” - Martha Hollander,
Winner of the Whitman Award under W. S. Merwin. Amazon
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The Zen of Falling Leaves, by Angel Collier
"Angel Collier's poems are exotic butterflies. Lovely language,
vision, beauty, a spiritual connection with the land, the birds,
and the trees. Her poems reveal a divine tenderness, an honest telling,
an open diary of her life and soul. Her language sings and shines."
Amazon
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The Here and Now of It, by David Connor
The Here and Now of It is a book of wit and wisdom, a life of experience distilled into vision and joy. It’s fascinating to read about the life adventures of someone who has lived through eight decades and share in the wisdom he has gleaned. At once you will realize this is a quick and highly observant mind behind these poems – honed by a deep and well-earned awareness of the world. Get ready to think more deeply about what you assume to be true. Amazon
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The Long and the Short of It, by David Connor
David Connor's gutsy collection of poems is a compendium of the
20th century American life as seen through the unflinching eye of
a dedicated physician and investigator into the mysteries of body
and soul. Amazon
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Gimme Five, by Philip Dacey
Dacey’s twelfth book demonstrates in poem after poem how
the restriction of five stanzas of five lines each is like gravity
to a dancer: it frees the artist. His poetry offers “fine
turns of language...amazing knots tied and untied” –
Louis McKee. And according to the San Francisco Review of Books,
”Dacey’s work never fails to amaze.” Amazon
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Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems, by Lucille Lang Day
The Muse of Museums has found her poet in Lucille Lang Day. She
has a painter's eyes, a scientist's mind and an alchemist's soul.
In her museum poems, she describes the world we enter with scientific
precision, paints it with colorful words, then throws in a tincture
of wild imagination, memory, a drop of ancestral spirit and proclaims:
"Let there be magic!." Read these poems and you too will
be touched by magic.” Amazon
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Rumors of Shore, by Paul Fisher
The wildness of the natural world, and of the spirit, just barely
contained; the elemental and the ephemeral; a primal darkness full
of stars; fistfuls of tart black fruit-this is the stuff out of
which Paul Fisher makes his poems, poems that are mysterious and
musical and often terrifyingly beautiful, carved out of the strange
light of this world "into luck, luminosities, pearls."
– Cecilia Woloch. His is a soft, evocative, welcoming voice,
resonant with a deep humility toward this world. author's
site Amazon
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A Split Second of Light, by Stewart Florsheim
"Stewart Florsheim is one of those rare poets who has it all:
chillingly beautiful language that draws the reader into myriad
worlds of “riveting silence” and “prayer bells”;
great courage to face the darkness, and the strength and wisdom
to see that death and life are inextricably intertwined. This is
an extraordinary book." – Louise Nayer, author of Burned:
A Memoir author's
site Amazon
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The Short Fall from Grace, by Stewart Florsheim
"Stewart Florsheim has written a Moebius strip of a book,
starting with the nearly unspeakable grief of being the child of
ill-matched parents, and proceeding by turns into the amorous education
of a young man, the perspicuity of a middle-aged aesthete (many
of the poems here take their cue from great paintings), and finally
marriage and fatherhood, which loop back with irony and insight
to the beginning of Florsheim's narrative arc. The Short Fall From
Grace, then, doesn't occur so much in a straight line—the
way an actual fall might—as it does in a circular fashion,
owing its trajectory not to gravity but to the irresistible pull
of time." –Thomas Centolella author's
site Amazon
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River of Earth and Sky, anthology selected by Diane Frank
More than 100 poets in this impressive collection of poems and
poets! River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the 21st Century mixes
the best voices of our generation with the grass roots. In these
pages, you will find poets who have won the Pulitzer Prize and the
National Book Award, along with lesser known poets who also deserve
to be read. Jane Hirshfield praises this book: "Congratulations
on this fantastic coming together of voices." editor's
site Amazon
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Yoga of the Impossible, a novel by Diane Frank
“In Yoga of the Impossible, a series of journeys
of the mind, the heart, and the whole spirit dance, punctuated by
the most amazing imagery. At some place in this picaresque work,
the reader will stand up and cheer. I guarantee it.” —Mary
Norbert Korte, author of The Persephone Poems author's
site Amazon
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Swan Light, by Diane Frank
"These poems of love returning to love, and light returning
to light, are a heart gone supernova. Page by page Frank burns a
path to her readers' hearts. The alignments are profound, the connections
electric – from heart to bone, from marrow to star. These
are radiant poems, where we earthbound creatures may find simultaneous
escape and renewal." – George Wallace, Walt Whitman Birthplace
Writer in Residence author's
site review
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Entering the Word Temple, by Diane Frank
"Diane Frank can enter, at will, that region where visions
reveal themselves like snapshots. She transcribes these as jewel-like
images on the page, through a vocabulary steeped in the natural
world and the insistent predilections of the human heart."
– Nancy Berg "Diane Frank crafts more than words, she
brews word medicine. I feel her syllables like salve penetrate my
skin to heal deeply hidden wounds." – Robin Lim
author's
site Amazon
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Blackberries in the Dream House, a novel by Diane Frank
Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Blackberries
in the Dream House is the forbidden love story of a geisha
and a Buddhist monk in Kyoto, 150 years ago, in the genre of
magical realism. Praised for the beauty of its language, this novel
is deeply feminine, erotic and metaphysical. author's
site Amazon
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The Winter Life of Shooting Stars, by Diane Frank
"Tomas Transtromer once said that his poems are meeting places
for souls. In this world where one does not always feel entirely
at home, it is with a sense of recognition that one enters a Diane
Frank poem, with all its exotic quirks, and rather than feel it
to be strange, feel it to be a habitable, companionable place of
kindred spirits." – Tom Centolella "What stays with
me is that the poet depends on touch rather than vision to 'see'
the real world. The narrators use their fingers and fingertips to
make sure of reality; often the eyes are used to look beyond reality."
– Daniel Langton author's
site Amazon
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Rhododendron Shedding Its Skin, by Diane Frank
"In Diane Frank's poems, the beautifully sensual language
is like the dense fur on a winter animal. Something powerful moves
and shifts beneath the surface. On this inner level Diane controls
more than language. Her dimensions are so primal that the rhythm
and textures of her voice could swell the moon." – Corinne
Erly author's
site Amazon
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Lit Windows: A Book of Haibun and Tanka Prose, by Joyce Futa
Joyce Futa casts time into long waves of elegant prose, and then gathers what remains in her poet’s net. Her writing builds with a quiet intensity, much like a great soup whose signature dish is tasted as much through the mystery of its chef as its ingredients ... a memoir of dream and memory alive with persons and place, beautifully crafted into haunting, profound, and often luminous haibuns. Amazon
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A Rope of Luna, by Lisha Adela García
This collection of poems immerses us in the raw wound of life as an immigrant child, as a daughter of a dying mother, as an estranged child of a faraway father, of a determined poet capturing the beauty of life in its "new botanical garden." Vividly painting the experience of leaving her native land and of being immersed in a place where her ethnicity, her language, and the prejudice of local institutions mark her as the despised and the disposable, Garcia evokes an eloquence both powerful and incisive. Amazon
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Blood Rivers, by Lisha Adela García
Lisha Adela García's splendid debut full-length collection
of poems follows the legacy of blood-spilled, spared, reviled, holy,
singled-out, intermingled, and sustaining. These are poems of cultural
border crossings and personal boundary breaches as seen from the
female perspective. Her "whole life is the geography between...two
countries, two cultures, two languages," the Rio Grande, "hugging
both sides" of her story. Amazon
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This Fool's Journey, by Melanie Gendron
"The personified tarot cards in This Fool's Journey talk about
themselves, making the archetypes accessible to the reader. The
line drawings of the Gendron Tarot major arcana make this book a
visual as well as consciously expansive treat." – John
Gray author's
site Amazon
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Physics for Beginners, by John Peter Harn
Winner of the 2017 Blue Light Book Award
In Physics for Beginners, John Harn seems to bend the natural world to his will, upending what we know. His poems inhabit loss and though they are often steeped in the indifference of geologic time and weary religious notions, they are tempered by humor and fragile beauty. This is an exceptional first book. Amazon
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Flash Fiction Funny, by Tom Hazuka
Tom Hazuka's Flash Fiction Funny is a delight. Comical, silly,
absurd, slapstick, quirky and always fun. Well-crafted flashes by
established and up-and-coming authors find humour in a wonderful
array of characters and scenarios: waitresses, teachers, musicians,
dentists, gynocologists, Barbie dolls and superheroes; first dates,
sexual fantasies, walks with ABBA and swimming with chickens.
author's
site Amazon
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Under the Pomegranate Sun, by Melissa Hobbs
In Melissa Hobbs' debut collection of poems, you will discover beautifully crafted language informed by a multi‑cultural spiritual vision. The author presents a world view shattered by the shootings at Kent State, where she was a university student. In her images, a powerful reverence for the natural world. In the subtext, a plea and a prayer for the planet to survive. Amazon
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Copperhead: Tantric Lessons On Love, by George James
These are offerings of healing for the dance of sexuality and spirituality,
a dance of light and shadow that has troubled seekers for eons.
"George James' Copperhead has a powerful teaching
about higher love in a world that has become profane. Each poem
is a lesson and a gift." – Diane Frank.
author's
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Peeling the Onion, by George James
George James has written a book of transformational poems about
the fivefold spiritual journey, where everyone will find a facet
of their own soul. Peeling the Onion’s poems reveal universal
life issues we all experience in some form. The wisdom, inspiration
and healing offered is simple, direct and easy to assimilate by
everyone regardless of their life’s path and level of personal
and spiritual development. author's
site Amazon
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Blackberry Winter, by Helga Kidder
Helga Kidder is a native of Germany's Black Forest region and lives
in the Tennessee hills. These poems, light and dark, are worshipful
of creation and wise about the nebulous nature of time, and one
woman's place in both. A beautifully crafted book with soaring images.
Amazon
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Luckier than the Stars, by Helga Kidder
Helga Kidder's Luckier than the Stars is an odyssey that
takes us from her childhood memories and post war Germany to present
day America, "a life spent to fit and re-fit the broken pieces."
A master of metaphor and a vigilant seer of the extraordinary in
the ordinary, she knows "...the past is a bell/ the present,
newborn sea turtles/ racing to the ocean's moon..." Amazon
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now leaving nowheresville - short stories by Philip Kobylarz
You don't know who the alien is, you or the other guy, or girl,
or possibly both. Not that it makes you compañeros; so we
learn in these wry stories, told with the air of a disabused Mediterranean
wanderer run aground, occasionally, in the American west. Amazon
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rues, by Philip Kobylarz
Philip Kobylarz’s enigmatic poems lead us into silences.
“All views are interiors.” They also remind us that
poetry is a tribute to Mystery. By elevating ordinary moments to
the level of the Silence, Kobylarz validates every small and minute
detail of existence. – Ewa Chrusciel Amazon
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One Good Turn, by Kirston Koths
Winner of the
2016 Blue Light Book Award
Kirston Koths' debut collection of poems, is a perfect synergy
of wisdom, beauty, angst, and the voice of the tribal elder. More
than any other poet I know, he freeze-frames the magic of his childhood
and renders it eternal. Amazon
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Harbingers, by Jennifer Lagier
In Harbingers, you will find the sharp eye of the photographer,
the passion of the environmental activist, and a prayer for the
survival of the Earth. As the poet takes you on coastal walks on
the Monterey Peninsula, she reveals her delight in all natural things
and her fears about global warming. Amazon
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During Our Walks, by Daniel J. Langton
A series of monologues by the village explainer to a recent arrival.
Magical storytelling, beautiful wordsmithing. Lyrical and entertaining
from beginning to end. author's
site Amazon
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Personal Effects, New and Selected Poems, by Daniel J. Langton
Daniel J. Langton was launched into a life of writing poetry by
William Carlos Williams. "These poems have a lovely pacing
and interior radiance." – Tess Gallagher. "Superbly
written, beautifully controlled, and yet continually freshened by
a kind and fresh imagination." – Robert Bly
author's
site Amazon
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Pavement,
by Rustin Larson
Winner of the 2016 Blue Light Poetry Prize
Even for Rustin Larson, a master of invention, Pavement breaks into new territory. Brilliant writing, a delight on every page, a joy to read! His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, North American Review, Poetry East, and other magazines. author's
site Amazon
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Bum Cantos, Winter Jazz, & the Collected Discography of Morning,
by Rustin Larson
Winner of the 2013 Blue Light Book
Award
Rustin Larson's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa
Review, North American Review, Poetry East, Saranac Review, and
more. Challenging a reader's perspective while remaining accessible,
direct and vulnerable, Rustin Larson magically turns the routine
into the extraordinary. author's
site Amazon
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The Wine-Dark House, by Rustin Larson
The Wine-Dark House is a triumph by Rustin Larson. The poems are
evocative and finely wrought, brimming with detailed, sensual images
and delicately crafted lines. The poet leads us gently, yet with
a firm purpose, on a tour of shadowed memory, both distant and more
recent, that explores memory's hard truth. Larson is courageous
in that he is not willing to take refuge in the ordinary. With consummate
skill, inspired wit, and a rare compassion, these poems observe,
reflect, and startle, reminding us of the necessary human endeavor
to both honor and challenge the occasions of our daily lives.
author's site
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I Was Albert Schweitzer's Secret Mistress, by Judy Liese
In this charming and delightful collection of poetry and prose,
we are taken through the imaginative journey of a child in rural
Wisconsin, a young nurse's experiences in Alaska, and contented
married life in northern California. This is a book to be savored
and treasured like an old friendship. Amazon
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The Geometry of Splitting Souls, by Robin Lim 2011
CNN Hero of the Year!
"Robin Lim is a woman of staggering energy, passion, goodness
and talent. Her poems take all four of those traits, and weave them
into wonder." — Elizabeth Gilbert
Order online at Amazon,
or call by phone:1st World Publishing at 641-209-5000. |
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The Little House on Stilts Remembers, by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky
Sing a song of home, the places that have held you. Lament the
haunted Shoah-torn dwellings that could not hold. Create a dirge
for the loss of your home, where power animals and spirits hovered,
and give the home a voice to wail your leaving. Celebrate the lovemaking
that brings fire to the everyday, moving back and forth through
time in anguish and joy, as though all times were this one. Amazon
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Overland Park, by Michael Malan
Michael Malan is editor of Cloudbank, a literary journal published in Corvallis, Oregon. He writes a poetry of interlocking assumptions, a puzzling delight, exhilarating because it’s always on the move. The effect is to make us innocent again. Bright, unpredictable, yet grounded in an accessible lyric vision. Amazon
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A Deep but Dazzling Darkness, by Constance Rowell Mastores
Winner of the 2013 Blue Light Book Award.
Mastores is a poet of immediacy - of rapt contemplation of the
phenomenal world. She has a musician's ear for how to create marvelous
sound effects with words and cadence. "With her shape-shifting,
synesthetic imagery and her subtle use of sound, Mastores is a poet
whose words seem to breathe on the page." — Blue Unicorn Amazon
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Walking Backwards, by Ken McCullough
This is a book about relationships: with each other and with the
natural world. Ken McCullough demonstrates a profound understanding
and acceptance of the balance between light and dark in the universe.
. . his words are passionate and elegant, and meditate on life from
the perspective of one who has lived it fully. McCullough speaks
to us with wit and humility, as prophet, trickster, father, lover,
friend and teacher. Amazon
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Cradling Monsoons, by Sarah McKinstry-Brown
2011 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry
Cradling Monsoons "pits tension between reality and
desire, cultivating a world rich with lived imagination. In Sarah
McKinstry-Brown’s grasp, language tackles the world of marriage,
pregnancies and family with a complex love capable of cradling frustrations
and grief with a patience that can ride through any monsoons and
still trust there will be air to breathe soon enough." —Lisa
Gill, Author of The Relenting "These poems make art
from life, and reveal the making and living of life as an art of
terrible power and tenderness. These poems are pure muscle, fierce
heart." —Lee Ann Roripaugh, Author of On the Cusp
of a Dangerous Year author's
site Amazon
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What We Love, by Ed Meek
"Ed Meek digs underneath the broad lawns and narrow minds
of the suburbs to unearth a deeper and at times darker, truth about
ourselves and our lives." -Doug Holder. "His poems are
brilliant, fresh, and full of subtle surprises." - James Chichetto.
"Ed Meek's poems ... show us what's real and true, whether
it's terrifying or funny as hell." - Bill Littlefield, NPR
Amazon
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The Screwdriver’s Apprentice, by Edmund Miller
“The slither-under-your-skin wit of The Screwdriver’s Apprentice begins with the title and becomes more irresistible, gloriously off-center, and alive as you make your way through these now-you-see-them-now-you ... poems. Hot, smart and sensual. Not only dazzling but moving, deeply so.” - James R. Kincaid Amazon
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That Certain Blue, by Sharon Lask Munson
Sharon's first full-length book of poems invites the reader into
a world of compassion and tenderness, family traditions, affirming
a life of grace and quiet joy. author's
site Amazon
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Burned, a memoir by Louise Nayer
An Oprah Magazine Great Read.
Louise Nayer illuminates both the emotional intensity of loss and
the surprising strength that is summoned up for the sake of loved
ones. Burned is the story of a family stripped to their barest elements
and held together by love.. Amazon
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The Houses are Covered in Sound by Louise Nayer
Louise Nayer's poems are full of vision, wisdom, vulnerability
and beautifully crafted language. "She has sharp imagery and
honesty in her work, and her poetry is in touch with life, as poetry
is supposed to be." – John Logan "Louise Nayer is
a markedly gifted poet." – Robert Creeley. Amazon
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Night Visions, by Marsha M. Nelson
Winner of the 2016 Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Award
“In Night Visions, Marsha M. Nelson threads the cycle of the outer world through the cycle of the spirit-self. This collection is evidence of her deep-seated spiritual roots and how her faith has given her wings and rest on the branches of victory.” - Loretta Diane Walker Amazon
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Under a Prairie Moon, by Susie Niedermeyer
In Under a Prairie Moon, Susie Niedermeyer doesn't so
much observe the natural world as experience it flowing through
her. In a poetic voice that is at once down-to-earth and visionary,
she explores inner and outer landscapes as they intersect and shape
one another. Many of her poems are rooted in close, delicate observation
of plant and animal life in the rural Midwest and are animated by
the poet's acute sensitivity. These poems carry the weight and the
wisdom of lived experience: how memories accumulate and cast their
shadows on the present; how illumination and understanding can come
suddenly, in a moment. Amazon
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Do Houses Dream? by Barbara Novack
Barbara Novack's debut book of poems offers the reader a celebration
of all parents.
Opening gently in a thoughtful mode, it builds to a crescendo, then
returns to a more contemplative tone at the end, with each poem
set in a context that lets it shine. Amazon
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Petroglyphs, by Fred Ostrander
Fred Ostrander is a poet who understands a dedicated and diligent
approach to the use of language. His poetic vision, subtle and engaging,
is powered by the natural rhythms of a confiding voice, a voice
that conveys a man of deep integrity and humanity. The poems in
Petroglyphs are intimate and universal, lyrical and intelligent.
They call the reader back, again and again, to wander around their
word and sound landscapes. "To begin reading Fred Ostrander
is to enter an alternate, intenser world where the great images
rule and the tides of the universe palpably lift (and drop) us all."
– John Hart Amazon
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Bend of Quiet, by Ken Pobo
2014 Blue Light Book
Award.
Every culture has its seers and visionaries, who see and hear more
than the rest of us. Kenneth Pobo's lyrics reveal the inner lives
of fauna and flora. These are healing songs in the tradition of
tribal shamans, love songs, clearly articulated in the American
Idiom. They wake us, remind us to care for the spirits embodied
within us and around us, to live in earth's mystery without destroying
it further. Amazon
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Cellulose Pajamas, by Meg Pokrass
2014 Blue Light Book Award.
"In a smattering of sassy, wry words Meg Pokrass creates a
universe of love in Cellulose Pajamas. These sexy but wistful prose
poems hint at entire constellations of affections, relationships
at once sweet, sad, satisfying-and not. The poet's delicately surreal
metaphors give her poems so enticing an air that they seem to wear
perfume." ~ Molly Peacock Amazon
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Baby you can drive my car, by Michèle Praeger
Michèle Praeger's three previous lives read like a French
childhood memoir, an absurdist comedy, and a Henry James novel.
"Her debut collection of flash fiction takes you on unexpected
journeys. Her stories are brilliant little jewels, which never go
quite where you expect them to. I love the French existentialism
juxtaposed with joie de vivre in these stories. Delightful to read!"
Amazon
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Lyrics for a Low Noon, by James Ralston
Nominated for the National Book Award
James Ralston, in his debut collection, delivers with an edgy honesty and complex humor the difficulties of loving and being loved. His poems explore sex and separation, the highs of intimacy that devolve into something lesser. "A poetry that dares and distills ... as it makes us wince with the pleasure of recognition." - Stephen Dunn, author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry Amazon
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No Longer An Ingenue, by Megan Robinson
2014 Blue Light Poetry Prize.
"Megan's writing brings to mind the desert flower, the blossoms
that have become tough from fighting the environment. She reaches
for the mooring of autobiography and loosens the knot. We can feel
the transformation that happens when the decision is made to stand
and face the story, the birth cry of a warrior-mother, one who steps
hungry into the rite of passage rather than choose the easy path
of the coward." – David Hurlin Amazon
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Mural, by Alice Rogoff
Winner of the 2004 Blue Light Book Award, Alice Rogoff lives in
San Francisco. She has been an Editor of the Haight Ashbury Literary
Journal since 1984, and received an Honorable Award in the Artists
Embassy International Dance-Poem Contest. She belongs to the Northern
California Media Workers Guild, is the Recording Secretary for the
San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, and leads drama workshops for
low-income adults. Amazon
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Cypher Garden, by Mary Kay Rummel
In Mary Kay Rummel’s poems there is no separation between the spiritual and the sensual. Even as a child, she writes, I longed to spend my life in praise. Stanley Kunitz said, "Mary Kay’s poems have and sustain an oracular voice"... sometimes prophetic and always lustrous and generous to the reader’s psyche. A spectacular collection to read again and again. author's
site Amazon
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The Lifeline Trembles, by Mary Kay Rummel
2014 Blue Light Book Award
"The Lifeline Trembles displays the full power of
Mary Kay Rummel's poetic gift. Her poems are visionary, erotic and
full of light. With elegantly crafted language, these pages are
filled with a love that is palpable and shines. The voice of the
Wise Woman sings in every poem." – Diane Frank, Author
of Swan Light and Yoga of the Impossible
author's
site Amazon
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What’s Left is the Singing, by Mary Kay Rummel
Mary Kay Rummel spins words into mysticism and magic. "Not
to be ordinary," she was drawn into the convent where she was
forbidden to read fiction because the Superior didn't like it. She
was able to leave when "words whispered in that wind/telling
her to go forth and read, to never ask again." Set free, she
read and wrote and traveled, visiting early Irish history and myth.
Throughout her book, bells chime in celebration as her words become
exquisite lyric poems. Rummel's work allows us to feel how. . .
"light slips/through fingers into every fold of sky." author's
site Amazon
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No Foothold in this Geography, by Becky Sakellariou
In these poems, the cultural and physical landscapes of New England, where the poet was born and raised, and those of the Greek/Mediterranean, where she has lived for so long, mingle, merge and even coalesce in intriguing and often inexplicable ways. Amazon
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Dual Exposure, by Barbara Saxton
At age four, Barbara Saxton flaunted a warrior's stance, challenging
Niagara's full force. With that same tenacity, bravery, elegance
and honesty, she challenges her readers to experience the forces
of alcoholism, the complexity of family relationships, and the beautiful
interludes of love and life. Barbara's wit and mastery of expression
are woven in every line of this collection. Amazon
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Unexpected Guests, by Stephen Schneider
“Steven Schneider is an extraordinary poet. Each of the poems
in this collection is crafted with inspiration, dedication and a
skill that exemplifies the best of contemporary poetry. Unexpected
Guests is a powerful and beautifully written book that explores
the meaning of faith, remembrance and creativity. ” - Marjorie
Agosìn ... "For people who have been fans of Stephen
Schneider's poetry all along, Unexpected Guests is the major collection
they have been waiting for. For others, this is a wonderful poet
to get to know well. It doesn't take long to make friends with these
poems, and they'll become friends you'll want to visit again."
- Rustin Larson author's
site Amazon
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Measuring the Distance, flash fiction by Robert Scotellaro
Finalist for the da Vinci Eye Award (for
excellence in book design) and received Honorable Mention for the
Eric Hoffer Book Award
(for excellence in fiction).
"From a homeless man stealing sugar, a mime with a gun, crazy
Uncle L and a daughter's drunken Skype, to the stunning, aching
perfection of 'One Better Than the Next,' Measuring the Distance
is the work of a master storyteller. Our favorite collection of
2012." – Boston Literary Magazine. author's
site Amazon
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What We Know So Far, micro fiction by Robert Scotellaro
2015 Blue Light Book Award
Scotellaro's flash stories, sentence by sentence, ride disjunction
to dazzling heights of hilarity, hard won wisdom, and the sweetest
grief. He is the sublime story teller of tiny lives colliding with
big moments. These stories take us into small worlds full of big
surprises. author's
site Amazon
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The Book of Cold Mountain, by Cameron Scott
Winner of the 2016 Blue Light Book Award
"Cameron Scott writes like a river... his is the language
of water and gravity, the silence of an empty desert basin, the
smell of sage on cool mornings." Amazon
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Age of Exploration, by Christopher Seid
2015 Blue Light Book Award
Christopher Seid has crafted a book for seekers, a collection full
of questions small and large and journeys. These poems exist in
a force field between wholeness and limitation, between the longing
for transcendence and the realities of responsibility and loss.
Full of passion, wonder, mystery and joy - the kind of writing that
makes you feel happy to be alive and part of it all. Amazon
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Indian Rope Trick, by Prartho Sereno
2018 Blue Light Book Award
"The magnificent poems of Prartho Sereno reground us in our bodies, in the glistening syllables and scenes surround us. They retune us to a tender, more palpably luminous world we would prefer to inhabit." - Naomi Shihab Nye
Amazon
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Hope is a Muscle, by Betsy Snider
2015 Blue Light Book Award
In this unusual collection of poems, Betsy Snider takes us back
to her youthful years as a nun, her struggle against the convent's
strict rules, and the new life she creates in rural New Hampshire.
Wrought with precise detail, in deeply felt language, she suffers
the silence of both God and love. Her poems read like haunting hymns
or prayers to both the physical world and the world of the spirit.
author's
site Amazon
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Butterfly Tattoo, by Paul Stokstad
"Paul is a passionate and somewhat enigmatic man. He speaks
in these soft staccato bursts, filled with questioning and wonder,
and you can hear this, if you listen close, in his poetry."
-Glenn Watt Amazon
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Mysterious Light, by Joyce Uhlir
Delving beneath the surface of things, Joyce Uhlir's poems explore
and shed light on a multi-dimensinal world of nature where sight,
sound, feelings, smell and taste mix like paint on a pallet, to
the delight of body and soul. Sensuous and spiritual at the same
time, this light often seems like x-ray vision, making the opaque
transparent and beautiful. Joyce's painting, Bones of Zion,
graces the cover of her book. Her poems radiate beauty and wisdom.
They paint pictures with words and are filled with "mysterious
light." in
memory Amazon
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When My Heart Goes Dark, I Turn the Porch Light On, by Jane Underwood
Forged in the aftermath of a metastatic cancer diagnosis, these intimate poems keep stumbling into wonder. “Sharp, poignant, funny, tough, tart, sweet – like Jane herself, who lived life on her own terms and sang about it.” ~ Alison Luterman. The manuscript of this book was on her nightstand when she died in February, 2016. Her closest friends published it with her blessings. Amazon
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Tangled Threads, by Margo Von Strohuber
2016 Blue Light Poetry Prize
Margo is a poet whose body of work has primarily remained buried in her desk drawer. After teaching for 40 years, Tangled Threads marks her entry into publishing. “What I most admire in these poems is the raw passion and fierce minimalism. Every line is transparent to the emotions. Every poem in this book is jewel.” - Diane Frank Amazon
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Word Ghetto, by Loretta Diane Walker
"Loretta Diane Walker writes with compassionate wisdom and
insight-her poems restore humanity." -Naomi Shihab Nye. "Loretta
Walker's Word Ghetto is an astounding book, full of wisdom,
compassion, and masterfully woven word magic. Her language speaks
with a rich tapestry of emotion, and her poems sing like a saxophone
playing the music of her soul. Loretta Walker's vision is huge -
she speaks for a whole community of people who are marginalized
by the circumstances of their birth. Her poems offer healing, vision
and hope." -Diane Frank, Author of Blackberries in the Dream
House and Entering the Word Temple. Amazon
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In This House, by Loretta Diane Walker
Winner of the 2016 Wheatley Book Award for Poetry
at the Harlem Book Fair
Loretta Diane Walker's house of poems is majestic and delicate
at once - immense in depth of vision and perception and tenderly
sensitive in all the ways human beings need a house to be. Her vibrantly
descriptive poems honor the hardest days and rooms of being and
believe in the beams of light coming back to us, once again, through
the windows... poems as rich and wise as a profoundly conscious
life. ~ Naomi Shihab Nye Amazon
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Wednesday After Lunch, by Will Walker
"Will Walker has written a collection of poems so intelligent
and clear that reading them I wake up-and find myself alive in the
world. This is what art can do – and every time it happens
it's a miracle. Here is a miraculous book-awake to what the Buddhists
call the "full catastrophe" of living right now. If you
want to feel yourself alive and in great company, buy this book
and read it, and then pass it on." – Marie Howe "He
writes with a keen eye, a generous heart, and an expansive spirit,
both embracing the everyday and transcending it. His poems always
make me see with new eyes. They are love poems to the world."
–Thea Sullivan author's
site Amazon
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Smashing Rock And Straight As Razors, by George Wallace
2017 Blue Light Book Award
George Wallace is Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace (2011‑present), first poet laureate of Suffolk County NY, and author of 30 books of poetry. A seminal figure on the New York City poetry performance scene, Wallace maintains an active international schedule of workshops, lecture presentations and poetry readings. Amazon
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Walking the Refuge, by Glenn Watt
2015 Blue Light Poetry Prize
Through his keen eye and exquisitely musical line, Watt creates
not just a fine homage to the mysterious life of birds, but offers
a deeper commentary on the nourishing power of time spent alone
in nature, an increasingly rare luxury these days. Amazon
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What the Wind Taught Me, by Pearl Werbach
Pearl Werbach's debut collection of poems have a gift for glimpsing into the world beyond the obvious. Playful and full of soul, you’d never guess that the author is only eleven years old. Highly recommended for young and adult readers. Her poems will call you to you see the world in a different way. Amazon
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Something About, by Andrena Zawinski
2010 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
"These are strong poems, brave works that are not afraid to
identify pain-these poems come from an 'examined life'-we have a
Book of Hours here that connects and wildly chronicles the 'givens'
of a woman." -Rosaly DeMaios Roffman ... "The poems here
are full of elegant and perceptive surprises; they are exacting
in the way they seek out and find new uses for the language we know."
-Susan Kelly-DeWitt. Amazon
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A list of chapbooks is available on the Contest
Winners page.
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