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Worldling
by Elizabeth Spires"With not one wrong move, not one word off-key or trivial, this collection of poems makes us experience intimate, yet not necessarily personal, contact with the poet who lets us at times see the struggle behind the refined sensibility. . . .Spires asks the big questions with such competence and polish that we admire her sweating, our metaphysical gladiator, guarantor of our considerable pleasure." --Nancy Nahra, Philadelphia Inquirer Winner of a 1996 Whiting Award. In her fourth collection of poems Elizabeth Spires addresses the elemental subjects of life and of literature: birth, death, creation, and intimations of immortality. The first section focuses on the experiences of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth from the points of view of both mother and child. The second section offers a reversal and reply in which the poems move out into a divided and divisive world. These poems are distinguished by an immaculate lyricism, a pristine sense for the natural world and the rhythms of language.
Worldly Things
by Michael Kleber-DiggsFinalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry&“Sometimes,&” Michael Kleber-Diggs writes in this winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, &“everything reduces to circles and lines.&”In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love—teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics—couple with moments of wrenching grief—a father&’s life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother&’s waist; Freddie Gray&’s death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.But Worldly Things refuses to &“offer allegiance&” to this centuries-old status quo. With uncompromising candor, Kleber-Diggs documents the many ways America systemically fails those who call it home while also calling upon our collective potential for something better. &“Let&’s create folklore side-by-side,&” he urges, asking us to aspire to a form of nurturing defined by tenderness, to a kind of community devoted to mutual prosperity. &“All of us want,&” after all, &“our share of light, and just enough rainfall.&”Sonorous and measured, the poems of Worldly Things offer needed guidance on ways forward—toward radical kindness and a socially responsible poetics.Additional Recognition: A New York Times Book Review "New & Noteworthy Poetry" SelectionA Library Journal "Poetry Title to Watch 2021"A Chicago Review of Books "Poetry Collection to Read in 2021"A Reader's Digest "14 Amazing Black Poets to Know About Now" SelectionA Books Are Magic "Recommended Reading" SelectionAn Indie Gift Guide 2021 Indie Next Selection
Worlds Afire
by Paul B. JaneczkoIn this collection of eyewitness poems, the excitement and anticipation of attending the circus on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, turns to horror when a fire engulfs the circus tent, killing nearly 170 people, mostly women and children.
Worlds Woven Together: Essays on Poetry and Poetics (Literature Now)
by Vidyan RavinthiranWriting about poetry follows models provided either by academic scholarship or literary journalism, each with its pitfalls. The former distances the reader from the poem and effaces the critic’s personality. In literary journalism, the critic is front and center, but the discussion is introductory and prioritizes value judgments. In either case, entrenched practices and patterns of privilege limit one’s perspective. The situation worsens when it comes to minoritized poets and poets from the Global South, where the focus is on restrictive notions of identity: the stylistic innovations of literary works get ousted by prefabricated historical narratives.In Worlds Woven Together, the critic, poet, and scholar Vidyan Ravinthiran searches for alternatives, pursuing close, imaginative readings of a variety of writers. His essays are open-ended, attentive, and curious, unabashedly passionate and subjective yet keenly analytical and investigative. Discussing neglected authors and those well-known in the West, Ravinthiran sees politics as inseparable from literary form and is fascinated by the relation of the creative consciousness to the violences of history. The book features essays on writers including Mir Taqi Mir, Ana Blandiana, A. K. Ramanujan, Marianne Moore, Eunice de Souza, Czeslaw Milosz, Ted Hughes, Rae Armantrout, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Galway Kinnell, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Vahni Capildeo. Revealing serendipitous connections—between poems and cultures, between lines of verse and the lives we lead—Worlds Woven Together is for all readers fascinated by the mechanics and politics of poetry.
Worlds beyond My Window: The Life and Work of Gertrude McCarty Smith
by Thomas R. Brooks Pat Pinson Stephen Rosenberg Rick WilemonArtist, columnist, and poet Gertrude McCarty Smith (1923–2007) of Collins, Mississippi, carried herself as a demure and proper southern lady, yet this was deceiving as she was a prolific, creative trailblazer who had collectors and dedicated readers from coast to coast, and even in Europe. She grew up during the Great Depression with only some vivid storytelling and pictures from the family Bible to inspire and kindle her artistic spirit. However, at the age of ten, her career launched when her grandmother coaxed her with a box of crayons to milk the family cow—her seventy-year love affair with the arts was born. Over the years, she would express her creativity in many forms, resulting in thousands of paintings, sculptures, songs, poems, and newspaper columns and along the way a variety of artful cakes, as she ran a celebrated twenty-five-year cake business. Her art appeared in all shapes, sizes, materials, and “eatability.” For most of her early career, Gertrude dabbled with a variety of styles—with subjects mostly centered around life in rural Mississippi and her spiritual life. But in 1980 at the age of fifty-seven, she attended her first Mississippi Art Colony at Camp Jacob in Utica, Mississippi. Over the next fifteen years, she would make her pilgrimage twice a year to be inspired by celebrated guest instructors from around the nation and connect with fellow artists. The Colony was a major catalyst, exposing her to new styles, giving her encouragement and freedom to experiment. Gertrude said of the Colony, “I never knew anything about abstract art, but it fascinated me to no end. Abstract art to me is like a beautiful melody without words. In mixed media, I am in another world and often am surprised at the piece that evolves from the torn watercolor papers. The effect is a kaleidoscope of colors that makes the retinas dance.” This book features more than 150 images; a dozen poems; insightful essays from New York art dealer Stephen Rosenberg, acclaimed southern cultural scholar and curator Pat Pinson, and artist, curator, and instructor Rick Wilemon; along with a foreword by Tommy King, president of William Carey University; and a chronicle of her life’s journey by her son-in-law, Thomas R. Brooks. As Rosenberg has said, “Gertrude Smith is a remarkable and authentic American woman who teaches us that talent and creativity combined with a humanistic spirit is both a state of mind and a state of grace—at any age.” Book proceeds will benefit the Gertrude McCarty Smith Foundation for the Arts to bring access and passion for literature, performance, and visual arts to children in underserved communities throughout Mississippi.
Worshipful Company of Fletchers: Poems
by James TateMasterfully drawing on a variety of voices and characters, James Tate joyfully offers his first book since winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his "Selected Poems."<P><P> Winner of the 1994 National Book Award for poetry.
Wound Is the Origin of Wonder: Poems
by Maya C. Popa“Lyrical, beautiful, and descriptive.” —Mandana Chaffa, BOMB “In ravishing, formally exploratory poems, Maya C. Popa wields the lyric like a reparative scalpel, evoking wonder and woundedness in equal measure.” —Meghan O’Rourke Award-winning poet Maya C. Popa suggests that our restless desires are inseparable from our mortality in this pressing and precise collection. Rooting out profound meaning in language to wrench us from the moorings of the familiar and into the realm of the extraordinary, the volume asks, how do we articulate what’s by definition inarticulable? Where does sight end and imagination begin? Lucid and musically rich, these poems sound an appeal to a dwindling natural world and summon moments from the lives of literary forbearers—John Milton’s visit to Galileo, a vase broken by Marcel Proust—to unveil fresh wonder in the unlikely meetings of the past. Popa dramatizes the difficulties of loving a world that is at once rich with beauty and full of opportunities for grief, and reveals that the natural arc of wonder, from astonishment to reflection, more deeply connects us with our humanity.
Wounded Fiction: Modern Poetry and Deconstruction (Routledge Library Editions: Literary Theory #2)
by Joseph AdamsonThis book, first published in 1988, does not concern the theory of poetry so much as the poetry of theory: a poetry that theorizes, that has a "view" on things, that thinks. What or what things does poetry think about, and what do we mean by thinking? The author attempts to answer these questions by examining the work of three poets – Wallace Stevens, César Vallejo, and René Char – and reflects upon the poetry itself. This title will be of interest to students of literature and literary theory.
Wounded Fiction: Modern Poetry and Deconstruction (Routledge Library Editions: Literary Theory)
by Joseph AdamsonThis book, first published in 1988, does not concern the theory of poetry so much as the poetry of theory: a poetry that theorizes, that has a "view" on things, that thinks. What or what things does poetry think about, and what do we mean by thinking? The author attempts to answer these questions by examining the work of three poets – Wallace Stevens, César Vallejo, and René Char – and reflects upon the poetry itself. This title will be of interest to students of literature and literary theory.
Wounded in the House of a Friend
by Sonia SanchezRenowned African-American poet Sonia Sanchez explores the pain, self-doubt, and anger that emerge in women's lives: an unfaithful life partner, a brutal rape, the murder of a woman by her granddaughter, the ravages of drugs. Sanchez transforms the unspoken and sometimes violent betrayals of our lives into a liberating vision of connection in emotional redemption, compassion, and self-fulfillment.
Wow! A Cow!
by Lindsay Lee JohnsonSomeone leaves the barn door open and there's chaos. Find out how Blue the dog comes to the rescue.
Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press
by Melba Joyce BoydAnd as I groped in darkness and felt the pain of millions,gradually, like day driving night across the continent,I saw dawn upon them like the sun a vision.—Dudley Randall, from "Roses and Revolutions"In 1963, the African American poet Dudley Randall (1914–2000) wrote "The Ballad of Birmingham" in response to the bombing of a church in Alabama that killed four young black girls, and "Dressed All in Pink," about the assassination of President Kennedy. When both were set to music by folk singer Jerry Moore in 1965, Randall published them as broadsides. Thus was born the Broadside Press, whose popular chapbooks opened the canon of American literature to the works of African American writers. Dudley Randall, one of the great success stories of American small-press history, was also poet laureate of Detroit, a civil-rights activist, and a force in the Black Arts Movement. Melba Joyce Boyd was an editor at Broadside, was Randall's friend and colleague for twenty-eight years, and became his authorized biographer. Her book is an account of the interconnections between urban and labor politics in Detroit and the broader struggles of black America before and during the Civil Rights era. But also, through Randall's poetry and sixteen years of interviews, the narrative is a multipart dialogue between poets, Randall, the author, and the history of American letters itself, and it affords unique insights into the life and work of this crucial figure.
Wrinkled Deep in Time: Aging in Shakespeare
by Maurice CharneyShakespeare was acutely aware of our intimate struggles with aging. His dramatic characters either prosper or suffer according to their relationship with maturity, and his sonnets eloquently explore time's ravaging effects. "Wrinkled deep in time" is how the queen describes herself in Antony and Cleopatra, and at the end of King Lear, there is a tragic sense that both the king and Gloucester have acquired a wisdom they otherwise lacked at the beginning of the play. Even Juliet matures considerably before she drinks Friar Lawrence's potion, and Macbeth and his wife prematurely grow old from their murderous schemes.Drawing on historical documents and the dramatist's own complex depictions, Maurice Charney conducts an original investigation into patterns of aging in Shakespeare, exploring the fulfillment or distress of Shakespeare's characters in combination with their mental and physical decline. Comparing the characterizations of elderly kings and queens, older lovers, patriarchal men, matriarchal women, and the senex-the stereotypical old man of Roman comedy-with the history of life expectancy in Shakespeare's England, Charney uncovers similarities and differences between our contemporary attitudes toward aging and aging as it was understood more than four hundred years ago. From this dynamic examination, a new perspective on Shakespeare emerges, one that celebrates and deepens our knowledge of his subtler themes and characters.
Write About Poetry: Getting to the Heart of a Poem
by Steven JacksonHow do we read poetry, compare poems, or generate observations into a thoughtful response? Write About Poetry is an invaluable reference book and skills guide for students of poetry. Featuring model essays, a glossary of technical terms, and additional practice for student engagement, this volume provides students with a clear and concise guide to: • reading unseen poems with confidence • developing general observations into formal, structured written responses • fostering familiarity with some of the great poets and poems in literary history Drawing on years of teaching experience, Steven Jackson delivers the background, progressive methodology, and practical essay writing techniques essential for understanding the fundamental steps of poetry analysis.
Write My Name: Authorship in the Poetry of Thomas Moore (Poetry and Song in the Age of Revolution)
by Justin TonraWrite My Name: Authorship in the Poetry of Thomas Moore is the first monograph devoted to Moore’s poetry. The focus of the book is on Moore’s poetry and differing formulations of authorship therein. Its scope comprises poetic publications from Moore’s early career, from his Romantic Orientalist writings, and from selected musical works, and political and satirical verse. It shares the strong historicist awareness of much previous scholarship on Moore, but combines this with a range of new and interdisciplinary contexts that are of increasing interest to scholarship in the twenty-first century, and which are rarely adopted as frameworks for viewing Moore’s work: digital humanities, book history, legal history, and textual theory. Ultimately, the book argues for the value of attending to neglected aspects of Moore’s work through analysis of his shifting modes of authorship and their various motivations
Write! Write! Write!: Namibia Edition. Your Travel Diary To Write In, Fill Out And Style Yourself For All Countries
by Amy Ludwig VanDerwaterA NCTE Notable Poetry BookTwenty-two poems capture the amazing power of writing and will inspire even the most reluctant writer to begin putting words to paper.Write! Write! Write! is a poetry collection that explores every stage and every aspect of the writing process, from learning the alphabet to the thrilling moment of writing a thought for the first time, from writer's block to finding inspiration, and from revision to stapling your finished work into a book. These poems also celebrate how writing teaches patience, helps express opinions, and allows us to imagine the impossible. This book, brimming with imagination and wonder, will leave readers eager to grab a pen, pencil, or keyboard--and write!
Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus
by Rebecca Ruth GouldSpanning the period between the end of the Russo-Caucasian War and the death of the first female Chechen suicide bomber, this groundbreaking book is the first to compare Georgian, Chechen, and Daghestani depictions of anticolonial insurgency. Rebecca Gould draws from previously untapped archival sources as well as from prose, poetry, and oral narratives to assess the impact of Tsarist and Soviet rule in the Islamic Caucasus. Examining literary representations of social banditry to tell the story of Russian colonialism from the vantage point of its subjects, among numerous other themes, Gould argues that the literatures of anticolonial insurgency constitute a veritable resistance--or "transgressive sanctity"--to colonialism.
Writing Anthropologists, Sounding Primitives: The Poetry and Scholarship of Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, and Ruth Benedict (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)
by A. Elisabeth ReichelWriting Anthropologists, Sounding Primitives re-examines the poetry and scholarship of three of the foremost figures in the twentieth-century history of U.S.-American anthropology: Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, and Ruth Benedict. While they are widely renowned for their contributions to Franz Boas&’s early twentieth-century school of cultural relativism, what is far less known is their shared interest in probing the representational potential of different media and forms of writing. This dimension of their work is manifest in Sapir&’s critical writing on music and literature and Mead&’s groundbreaking work with photography and film. Sapir, Mead, and Benedict together also wrote more than one thousand poems, which in turn negotiate their own media status and rivalry with other forms of representation. A. Elisabeth Reichel presents the first sustained study of the published and unpublished poetry of Sapir, Mead, and Benedict, charting this largely unexplored body of work and relevant selections of the writers&’ scholarship. In addition to its expansion of early twentieth-century literary canons, Writing Anthropologists, Sounding Primitives contributes to current debates about the relations between different media, sign systems, and modes of sense perception in literature and other media. Reichel offers a unique contribution to the history of anthropology by synthesizing and applying insights from the history of writing, sound studies, and intermediality studies to poetry and scholarship produced by noted early twentieth-century U.S.-American cultural anthropologists.
Writing Metrical Poetry: Contemporary Lessons For Mastering Traditional Forms
by William BaerWrite poetry in the great metrical tradition of Dante, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Frost, and the poets of the current Formalist revival. In this contemporary guide, you'll learn how to write metrical poetry in all the major forms, from blank verse and quatrains to sonnets and villanelles. Each chapter provides step-by-step instruction that's accessible and easy to understand for even the beginning poet.
Writing Poems (6th edition)
by Michelle Boisseau Robert WallaceThis book offers comprehensive coverage of the creative process and the technical aspects of writing poetry.
Writing Poetry (Second Edition)
by Barbara DrakeThe book intends to be an all-purpose poetry writing textbook, an inspiration and information on the writing process, a solid first step for beginners, and a source of ideas for writers and teachers at all levels.
Writing Poetry Book (The Everything )
by Todd Scott Moffett Tina D EliopulosGiving voice to ''what gets lost in translation'' is the challenge every poet faces. With The Everything Writing Poetry Book, that challenge just got easier. Featuring examples from works of celebrated poets and instruction on communicating your ideas, this clear and accessible reference helps you gain confidence as you find your own voice. Written by a team who each hold a master’s degree and teach creative writing and literature, this easy-to-follow guide has all you need to take your work to the next level. - With this handy guide, you will learn to:Create meter and rhyme - Express your innermost thoughts - Use imagery and metaphor - Polish your word play - Find your own rhythm - Work with other writersand more - The Everything Writing Poetry Book helps you make the most of this rewarding craft - whether you’re a fledgling poet or a seasoned wordsmith.
Writing Romanticism
by Jacqueline M. LabbeWhat is 'Wordsworthian' Romanticism and how did it evolve? This book argues that only by reading Charlotte Smith's poetry in tandem with William Wordsworth's can this question be answered, demonstrating their mutual contribution to the creation of the 'Wordsworthian', through literary analysis and historical contextualizing of their writings.
Writing from Ukraine: Fiction, Poetry and Essays since 1965
by Mark AndryczykA selection of fifteen of Ukraine's most important, dynamic and entertaining contemporary writersUnder USSR rule, the subject matter and style of literary expression in Ukraine was strictly controlled and censored. But once Ukraine gained independence in 1991 its literary scene flourished, as the moving and delightful poems, essays and extracts collected here show. There are fifteen authors included in this book, both established and emerging, and in this anthology we see them grappling with history and the future, with big questions and small moments. From essays about Chernobyl to poetry about Robbie Williams, from fiction discussing Jimmy Hendrix live in Lviv to underground Ukrainian poetry of the Soviet era, WRITING FROM UKRAINE offers a unique window into a rich culture, a chance to experience a particularly Ukrainian sensibility and to celebrate Ukraine's nationhood, as told by its writers.