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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 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 order |
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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 site Amazon order |
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Falling into Flowers, by Lynne Barnes 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. Amazon order |
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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 order |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Oracles for Night-Blooming Eccentrics, by Nancy Berg "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 order |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Weavings, by Mary Ellen Branan 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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Dreaming of France, by Kerry Tepperman Campbell 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 order info |
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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 Amazon order |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 Amazon order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order |
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Physics for Beginners, by John Peter Harn 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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 site |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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One Good Turn, by Kirston Koths 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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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Pavement,
by Rustin Larson 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 order |
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Bum Cantos, Winter Jazz, & the Collected Discography of Morning,
by Rustin Larson 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 order |
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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 Amazon order |
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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 order info |
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The Geometry of Splitting Souls, by Robin Lim "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 order info |
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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 order info |
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A Deep but Dazzling Darkness, by Constance Rowell Mastores 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 order |
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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 order |
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Cradling Monsoons, by Sarah McKinstry-Brown 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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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Burned, a memoir by Louise Nayer 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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Night Visions, by Marsha M. Nelson “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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Do Houses Dream? by Barbara Novack Barbara Novack's debut book of poems offers the reader a celebration
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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 order info |
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Bend of Quiet, by Ken Pobo 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 order |
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Cellulose Pajamas, by Meg Pokrass "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 order |
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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 order |
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Lyrics for a Low Noon, by James Ralston 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 order |
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No Longer An Ingenue, by Megan Robinson "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 order |
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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 order info |
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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 order |
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The Lifeline Trembles, by Mary Kay Rummel "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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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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 order info |
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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 order |
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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 order |
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What We Know So Far, micro fiction by Robert Scotellaro 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 order |
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The Book of Cold Mountain, by Cameron Scott "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 order info |
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Age of Exploration, by Christopher Seid 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 order info |
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Indian Rope Trick, by Prartho Sereno "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 order |
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Hope is a Muscle, by Betsy Snider 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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Tangled Threads, by Margo Von Strohuber 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 order info |
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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 order info |
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In This House, by Loretta Diane Walker 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 order info |
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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 order |
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Smashing Rock And Straight As Razors, by George Wallace 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 order info |
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Walking the Refuge, by Glenn Watt 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 order info |
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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 order info |
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Something About, by Andrena Zawinski "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 order info |
A list of chapbooks is available on the Contest
Winners page. |
