- Table View
- List View
Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse
by Brontez Purnell"This book is brutal and brutally honest, but still perversely addictive because Brontez Purnell is a performer in the truest sense. Reading Ten Bridges I've Burnt, I felt tucked-in with him, along for the intimate ride, and paused only once to write down a part I’d been looking for my whole life." —Miranda JulyFrom the beloved author of 100 Boyfriends, a wrenching, sexy, and exhilaratingly energetic memoir in verse.In Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt, Brontez Purnell—the bard of the underloved and overlooked—turns his gaze inward. A storyteller with a musical eye for the absurdity of his own existence, he is peerless in his ability to find the levity within the stormiest of crises. Here, in his first collection of genre-defying verse, Purnell reflects on his peripatetic life, whose ups and downs have nothing on the turmoil within. “The most high-risk homosexual behavior I engage in,” Purnell writes, “is simply existing.”The thirty-eight autobiographical pieces pulsing in Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt find Purnell at his no-holds-barred best. He remembers a vicious brawl he participated in at a poetry conference and reckons with packaging his trauma for TV writers’ rooms; wrestles with the curses, and gifts, passed down from generations of family members; and chronicles, with breathless verve, a list of hell-raising misadventures and sexcapades. Through it all, he muses on everything from love and loneliness to capitalism and Blackness to jogging and the ethics of art, always with unpredictable clarity and movement. With the same balance of wit and wisdom that made 100 Boyfriends a sensation, Purnell unleashes another collection of boundary-pushing writing with Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt, a book as original and thrilling as the author himself.
Theatre Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons (Routledge Series in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre and Performance)
by Ellen W. KaplanThis book is a collection of chapters by playwrights, directors, devisers, scholars, and educators whose praxis involves representing, theorizing, and performing social trauma.Chapters explore how psychic catastrophes and ruptures are often embedded in social systems of oppression and forged in zones of conflict within and across national borders. Through multiple lenses and diverse approaches, the authors examine the connections between collective trauma, social identity, and personal struggle. We look at the generational transmission of trauma, socially induced pathologies, and societal re-inscriptions of trauma, from mass incarceration to war-induced psychoses, from gendered violence through racist practices. Collective trauma may shape, protect, and preserve group identity, promoting a sense of cohesion and meaning, even as it shakes individuals through pain. Engaging with communities under significant stress through artistic practice offers a path towards reconstructing the meaning(s) of social trauma, making sense of the past, understanding the present, and re-visioning the future.The chapters combine theoretical and practical work, exploring the conceptual foundations and the artists’ processes as they interrogate the intersections of personal grief and communal mourning, through drama, poetry, and embodied performance.
There’s No Place Like Hope
by Janet LawlerThere’s no place like hope, where possible lives, where people are helpful and everyone gives.If you’re feeling scared or sad, happy or helpful—hope will guide you. It’s not always easy. And sometimes having hope means being brave, or determined, or kind. At the end of the day, hope is where better will be.This sweet, rhythmic picture book is a gentle yet powerful exploration of how hope makes us loving, courageous, and connected to one another.
Thick with Trouble (Penguin Poets)
by Amber McBrideFrom National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, a mystical, transcendent poetry collection about Black womanhood in the American SouthIn Thick with Trouble, award-winning poet Amber McBride interrogates if being &“trouble&”—difficult, unruly, fearsome, defiant—is ultimately a weakness or an incomparable source of strength. Steeped in the Hoodoo spiritual tradition and organized via reimagined tarot cards, this collection becomes a chorus of unapologetic women who laugh, cry, mesmerize, and bring outsiders to their knees. Summoning the supernatural to examine death, rebirth, and life outside the male gaze, Amber McBride has crafted a haunting, spellbinding, and strikingly original collection of poems that reckon with the force and complexity of Black womanhood.
This Is a Tiny Fragile Snake
by Nicholas RuddockFifteen poems explore close encounters with animals … and choosing to respond tenderly. Whether it’s helping a hummingbird escape, respecting a bear’s habitat, admiring a heron’s beauty, or giving way to ants at a picnic, the human response in these poems is to do no harm, and to help whenever possible. The poems follow a seasonal progression, ending with a final poem that imagines where each animal might be on a winter night. Inspired by personal experiences, Nicholas Ruddock’s poems are simply written, with a pleasing rhyme, and fun to read aloud. In the spirit of the text, Ashley Barron’s cut-paper collage illustrations portray each creature with respectful realism, in environments ranging from rural and wild to urban and suburban. A delightful dip into poetry for young animal lovers! Key Text Features illustrations poems Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets
by Kwame AlexanderA breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni, This Is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy, &“each incantation,&” as Mahogany L. Browne puts it in her titular poem, is &“a jubilee of a people dreaming wildly.&” This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall&’s The Black Poets and E. Ethelbert Miller&’s In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, race, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A.Trimble likens &“Black woman joy&” to indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Daye, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of &“home&” through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards. Clint Smith and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From a &“jewel in the hand&” (Patricia Spears Jones) to &“butter melting in small pools&” (Elizabeth Alexander), This Is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music, and raised fists. Fresh, memorable, and deeply moving, this definitive collection a must-have for any lover of language and a gift for our time.
This Way to Change: A Gentle Guide to Personal Transformation and Collective Liberation—Poems, Prose, Practices
by Jezz ChungAn inspirational roadmap to changing yourself—and the world—through self-healing, transformation, and decolonization from artist, poet, and changemaker Jezz Chung.Artist, poet, and performer Jezz Chung (they/them) focuses on cultural change through personal transformation. In This Way to Change, Jezz shares contemporary poetry, accessible prose, and healing practices from different therapeutic modalities to explore subjects like healing your inner child, nourishing friendships, decolonizing your thinking, deconstructing binaries, and intentional community-making. The interactive healing practices in this book include writing and reflection prompts, somatic exercises, guided meditations, and more to help readers tap into their powers of self-healing on their journey through change.INSPIRING EXPERT AUTHOR: Jezz Chung has built a career as a thought leader and changemaker through their intersectional approach to equity, creativity, and well-being. Celebrated as a champion for diversity and inclusion and featured in such outlets as Adweek, Paper Mag, i-D, Teen Vogue, and The Folklore, they have a vibrant and ever-growing following on Instagram. They are an internationally recognized public speaker sought after not only for their commitment to change but for their practice of honesty and vulnerability.TRANSFORMATIONAL SELF-HELP BOOK: For readers hungry for self-help that inspires and doesn’t feel like homework, this deeply engaging guide will spark inspiration as well as introspection. The author is uniquely positioned to address several underrepresented themes and issues, like the strictures of the gender binary, AAPI experience, LGBTQ+ experience, and neurodivergence, making this a breakthrough volume in the self-help genre.GIFT BOOK FOR A WIDE AUDIENCE: Beautifully packaged and filled with inspiration, This Way to Change makes a powerful resource and empowering gift for readers of contemporary poetry, anyone interested in social justice, underground artists, and futurism, and those eager to explore new avenues of self-exploration and personal growth.Perfect for:Anyone interested in social justice, racial and disability issues, LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized identity issuesThose seeking guidance in alternative wellness, self-guided healing, intentional community building, and collective careAAPI readers interested in Jezz Chung’s Korean American perspective on identity, decolonization, and intergenerational traumaReaders of Self-Love Poetry, Heart Talk, and such bestselling authors as Alexandra Elle and Yung Pueblo
The Trauma Mantras: A Memoir in Prose Poems
by Adrie KusserowThe Trauma Mantras is a memoir by medical anthropologist, teacher, and writer Adrie Kusserow, who has worked with refugees and humanitarian projects in Bhutan, Nepal, India, Uganda, South Sudan, and the United States. It is a memoir of witness and humility and, ultimately, a way to critique and gain a fresh perspective on Western approaches to the self, suffering, and healing. Kusserow interrogates the way American culture prizes a psychologized individualism, the supposed fragility of the self. In relentlessly questioning the Western tribe of individualism with a hunger to bust out of such narrow confines, she hints at the importance of widening the American self. As she delves into humanity’s numerous social and political ills, she does not let herself off the hook, reflecting rigorously on her own position and commitments. Kusserow travels the world in these poetic meditations, exploring the desperate fictions that “East” and “West” still cling to about each other, the stories we tell about ourselves and obsessively weave from the dominant cultural meanings that surround us.
The Tree That Sang To Me
by Serena MolloySome feelings are so big, they're hard to express ... A dyslexia-friendly verse story of friendship, family and self-discovery, perfect for listeners aged 9+, beautifully read aloud. When Kai's big sister Jenleaves the family home, Kai knows it's all his fault. His secret burns, but he tells no one, just keeps pulling at tufts of his hair. But in the broadbranches of a wasteland sycamore tree, Kai feels safe and free from his worries. Up there he feels he can be whoever he wants to be. And when a girl called Sky starts climbing Kai's tree, a friendship blossoms ... a friendship with the power to heal. Up hereit's likeI'm part of something elsethe windthe leavesthe airfree to bewhoever I want to be.
The Tree That Sang To Me
by Serena MolloySome feelings are so big, they're hard to express ... A dyslexia-friendly verse story of friendship, family and self-discovery, perfect for readers aged 9+, beautifully illustrated in black and white."A beautifully told story of resilience ..." Irish Times"With an uplifting ending, Kai's story will remain in your mind for a long time ... a fantastic read for a class group" Editor's Choice, Children's Books Ireland, Inis Magazine When Kai's big sister Jen leaves the family home, Kai knows it's all his fault. His secret burns, but he tells no one, just keeps pulling at tufts of his hair. But in the broad branches of a wasteland sycamore tree, Kai feels safe and free from his worries. Up there he feels he can be whoever he wants to be. And when a girl called Sky starts climbing Kai's tree, a friendship blossoms ... a friendship with the power to heal. Up hereit's likeI'm part of something elsethe windthe leavesthe airfree to bewhoever I want to be.
Two Minds: Poems
by Callie SiskelIn a piercing and beautiful elegy for the poet’s father, this debut volume investigates the enduring pain and transformative potential of grief. Does loss define us, or do we define loss? Tracing the duality of grief as it reverberates through a family, Callie Siskel wrestles with questions of identity and inheritance in precise, lucid poetry. Two Minds indulges and therefore exposes the vanity of turning private pain into art and the pursuit of self-revelation. Drawing on ekphrasis, ars poetica, and the prose poem, Siskel expands the elegiac genre as she oscillates between childhood and adulthood, art and mythology, as well as the natural and domestic world. At once cerebral and emotional, Two Minds is an essential meditation on the ways that loss cleaves and doubles our perceptive power.
twofold (Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series)
by Edward CarsonThe poet Charles Simic wrote, “Short poems: be brief and tell us everything.”Edward Carson’s extraordinary new work gathers concise diptych – or twofold – poems exploring themes of love, relationships, myth, art, language, math, physics, geometry, and artificial intelligence. Within the two sections of twofold, “dialogues” and “binaries,” the form of the diptych shapes language and meaning as paired poems engage each other across the margins of facing pages. Caroline Bem, author of A Moveable Form, writes: “The diptych, you see, is beautiful. It is symmetry and difference, doubling and mirroring, binarism and seriality. It is the form of paradox, both open and closed, free and contained.”Negotiating surprising twinning combinations, comparisons, and outcomes, the poems in twofold are lively, thought-provoking, and playful interchanges that are also mischievously literate, questioning, and intuitive.
Up Late: Poems
by Nick LairdAcclaimed poet Nick Laird reflects on the strange and chaotic times we live in with singular precision, clarity, and daring. Reeling in the face of collapsing systems, of politics, identity, and the banalities and distortions of modern living, Nick Laird confronts age-old anxieties, questions of aloneness, friendship, the push and pull of daily life. These poems transport us from a clifftop in Ireland’s County Cork to a bench in New York’s Washington Square, from a face-off between Freud and Michelangelo’s Moses to one between the poet and a squirrel in a London garden. At the book’s heart lies the Forward Prize–winning title sequence, a profound meditation on a father’s dying at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The reverberations of this knockout poem echo through the volume in its interrogations of inheritance and legacy, illness and justice, accounts of what is lost and what, if anything, can be retained. Amid rage, grief, and the conflagration of reality, Laird finds tenderness in the moments of connection that grow between the cracks and offers glimpses into the unadulterated world of childhood, where everything is still at stake and infinite. Astonishing in its emotional range and intellect, Up Late is a powerful volume from an “exceptionally gifted poet” (Paul Muldoon, Times Literary Supplement).
What Will People Say: Poems
by Taniya GuptaI had to fight for my existence before I was even out of my mother&’s womb. If I didn&’t stop fighting then, why would I stop now?What Will People Say follows a South Asian woman&’s journey through being a daughter, and later a daughter-in-law, within the strict confines of her patriarchal family. Readers watch as the narrator navigates life, trying to find a safe place for herself, until she finally becomes her own hero. Grappling with the subjects of sexual and psychological trauma, as well as mental health, this collection of poetry carves a path beyond the guilt of wondering: &“What will people say?&”
When I Fall: Poems
by Sabina LauraWhen I fall,you are a soft landing,like raindropson branches,like autumn leavesto the forest floor.But it is so easyto fall for youwithout caringwhere I might land.—Sabina LauraWhen I Fall is a book about love when it’s falling, crash landing, and learning to soar again.
Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night?
by Steven J. Simmons Clifford R. SimmonsOcean animals sleep, just like you! This informative, rhyming picture book dives deep to look at where and how ocean animals sleep in the sea.Many ocean animals are active during the day, but where and how do they sleep at night? From sharks to dolphins and sea turtles to octopuses, plus parrotfish and whales and more, discover what these ocean creatures do when it&’s time to go to sleep and the day is through.Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night? is newest addition to a three-book series, which includes Where Do Creatures Sleep at Night? and Where Do Big Creatures Sleep at Night? "Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night showcases wondrous watercolor illustrations that capture the allure of the sea. The rhyming rhythm dances through captivating animal facts about water-dwelling creatures before concluding in a cozy child's bedroom. Crafted to be a favorite bedtime read, this book is a must-have for the bookshelves of ocean lovers.&”– Bethany Stahl, Bestselling Author of Save the Ocean&“All mammals and most other animals need sleep, including those living in marine environments. This picture book&’s palette of soft colors and informative rhyme will introduce children to various facts about specific ocean animals and how they rest. Perfect for a bedtime read-aloud, this book will help young listeners and readers cuddle up together in their nice dry bed and sleep as tight as otters.&”– Sara T. Behrman, former librarian and author, The Sea Hides A Seahorse&“A delightful bedtime book! This jaunt into the ocean to learn about how our marine friends sleep will easily become part of your family bedtime routine. The charming illustrations are sure to captivate the imagination of children and inspire a love for the wonders of the sea, while sending them on a happy trip to dreamland.&” – Anne Richardson, Author of Octopuses Have Zero Bones and Chief Experience Officer at The Exploratorium "Scientific, sweet, and salty!"- Karen Romano Young, Deep Sea Diver and Award-winning Author of Whale Quest "This book is an absolute delight- the Dr. Seuss Sleep Book reimagined for the ocean. A beautiful way to unwind while learning a little more about our mysterious watery world. Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night? will surely inspire a future marine biologist or two!"- Paige Hoel, Ph.D. candidate, Oceanography, UCLA Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences"A gorgeously illustrated children&’s book that will inspire the next generation of marine biologists, conservationists, and animal lovers. The accurate animal facts were a breath of fresh air to find in this genre and will make learning fun for children and adults alike!&”- Kristyn Plancarte, Marine Biologist and animal trainer&“Dive into an underwater world of wonder and imagination. This delightful read features stunning artwork that brings the ocean to life for bedtime. From playful dolphins to sleepy sea turtles, families will climb aboard an informative journey through the sea." - Kendra Nelson, Marine Conservationist
Whiny Baby (Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series)
by Julie PaulChomping / champing / championing / churlish / … / There’s a wolf at the door / that looks exactly like meWho is the “whiny baby” in this book? Rather than calling names or hurling insults, the candid poems in this collection most often implicate the poet herself.Expansive in form and voice, the poems in Julie Paul’s second collection offer both love letters and laments. They take us to construction sites, meadows, waiting rooms, beaches, alleys, gardens, and frozen rivers, from Montreal to Hornby Island. They ask us to live in the moment, despite the moment. Including a spirited long poem that riffs on the fairy tale “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” these poems are like old friends that at once console and confess. They blow kisses, they remember, and they celebrate the broken and the lost alongside the beautiful.At turns frank, peevish, introspective, and mischievous, the poems share sincere and intimate perspectives on the changing female body, our natural and built landscapes, and the idiosyncrasies of modern life. Whiny Baby calls on us to simultaneously examine and exult in our brief time on earth.
With My Back to the World
by Victoria Chang'Chang has liberated the Ekphrastic form to new lyric heights and depths. Inventive, meditative, audacious, strange and soulful. A marvel of a collection that engages the eye and mind as much as the ear and heart' Raymond AntrobusYesterday I slung my depression on my back and went to the museum. I only asked four attendants where the Agnes painting was and the fifth one knew. I walked into the room and saw it right away. From afar, it was a large white square.WITH MY BACK TO THE WORLD engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the celebrated abstract modern artist, in ways that open up new modes of expression, expanding the scope of what art, poetry, and the human mind can do. Filled with surprise and insight, wit and profundity, the book explores the nature of the self, of existence, life and death, grief and depression, time and space. Strikingly original, fluidly strange, Victoria Chang's new collection is a book that speaks to how we see and are seen.
With My Back to the World: Poems
by Victoria ChangA new collection of poetry inspired by the work of Agnes Martin, exploring topics of feminism, art, depression, and grief, by the author of the prizewinning collection Obit. Yesterday I slung my depression on my back and went to the museum. I only asked four attendants where the Agnes painting was and the fifth one knew. I walked into the room and saw it right away. From afar, it was a large white square.With My Back to the World engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the celebrated abstract artist, in ways that open up new modes of expression, expanding the scope of what art, poetry, and the human mind can do. Filled with surprise and insight, wit and profundity, the book explores the nature of the self, of existence, life and death, grief and depression, time and space. Strikingly original, fluidly strange, Victoria Chang’s new collection is a book that speaks to how we see and are seen.
woke up no light: poems
by Leila MottleyA poignant, rousing debut book of poetry, full of life, from the former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, Californiawoke up no light is a Black girl&’s saunter turned to a woman&’s defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. A mouth swung open and ready to devour. A quest for home in a world that knows only wasteland and wanting.Moving in sections from &“girlhood&” to &“neighborhood&” to &“falsehood&” to, finally, &“womanhood,&” these poems reckon with themes of reparations, restitution, and desire. The collection is sharp and raw, wise and rhythmic, a combination that lights up each page. From unearthing histories to searching for ways to dream of a future in a world constantly on the brink of disaster, this young poet sets forth personal and political revelation with piercing detail.woke up no light confirms Leila Mottley&’s arrival and demonstrates the enduring power of her voice—brave and distinctive and thoroughly her own.
Words
by Arnold MatthewsThe author, Arnold Matthews, hopes you will find in this package of his written works of poetry, much pleasure. The poetry is addressed to all faiths and none, to all gender orientations and to Humanitarians. Of course, not all poetry appeals to everyone but as stated in the Doctor’s Magazine ‘The Lancet’, it says that the right sort of poetry can be very therapeutic. It is for the reader to judge if this is the ‘right sort of poetry’. The author invites the recipients of his work to select the material to which they can personally relate, and perhaps re-read from time to time, so that like a song, the impact of new concepts will be revealed and will bring growing joy and understanding, even revelation to the reader.
Wrong Norma
by Anne CarsonAnne Carson’s first original work since Float (Knopf, 2016) Published here in a stunning edition with images created by Carson, several of the twenty-five startling poetic prose pieces have appeared in magazines and journals like The New Yorker and The Paris Review. As Carson writes: “Wrong Norma is a collection of writings about different things, like Joseph Conrad, Guantánamo, Flaubert, snow, poverty, Roget's Thesaurus, my Dad, Saturday night. The pieces are not linked. That's why I've called them ‘wrong.’"
X in the Tickseed: Poems
by Ed FalcoFrom discursive essay-poems to tightly constructed lyrics, Ed Falco’s X in the Tickseed examines a world that reveals itself through its mysteries, reflecting upon the ephemeral nature of all things. In the series of poems that bookend the collection, a speaker identified only as X reviews personal history and relationships, speculating, pondering, and questioning in the face of a baffling universe. Peppered between the X poems, artists as varied as Artemisia Gentileschi, Frank O’Connor, and Nick Cave surface, usually in poems posing as essays about their art. Other poems range from explorations of cultural perspective, as in “A Few Words to a Young American Killed in the Tet Offensive,” where a war resister addresses a young man of his generation who died in Vietnam, to the often playful “An Alphabet of Things.” Throughout, Falco’s poems speculate on matters of life and faith, intensified by an awareness of death.
A Year of Last Things: Poems
by Michael OndaatjeFrom one of the most influential writers of his generation, a gorgeously surprising poetry collection about memory, history, and the act of looking backFollowing several of his internationally acclaimed novels, A Year of Last Things is Michael Ondaatje&’s long-awaited return to poetry. In pieces that are sometimes witty, sometimes moving, and always wise, we journey back through time by way of alchemical leaps, unearthing writings by revered masters, moments of shared tenderness, and the abandoned landscapes we hold on to to rediscover the influence of every border crossed.Moving from a Sri Lankan boarding school to Molière&’s chair during his last stage performance, to Bulgarian churches and their icons, to the California coast and his beloved Canadian rivers, Michael Ondaatje casts a brilliant eye that merges memory with the present, in the way memory as the distant shores of art and lost friends continue to influence everything that surrounds him.From his poem "His chair, a narrow bed, a motel room, the fox": At the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles Sam Cooke was shot dead. &‘See that shadow on the wall . . .&’ All those motels and hotels in literature and song, where X wrote this, where Y got drunk, where Z overdosed. The one Hank Williams was driven past, dead already in his car. The Slavianski Bazaar Hotel in "The Lady with a Dog," where Dmitri imagines their dark but hopeful future. The Hôtel de ville de Courtrai, where Verlaine shot Rimbaud. The Casa Verdi in Milan, where retired opera singers were welcomed along with various heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa in their afterlife.
A Year of Last Things: Poems
by Michael OndaatjeOne of the Globe and Mail's most anticipated books of 2024With A Year of Last Things, acclaimed novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to poetry, where he began his career over fifty years ago, and what a return it is.Born in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived here since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world – describing himself as a &“mongrel,&” someone born out of diverse cultures. Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Moliere&’s chair during his last stage performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the California coast and loved Canadian rivers, merging memory with the present, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery, love and loss. At first sight it is a glittering collection of fragments and memories – but small, intricate pieces of a life are precisely what matter most to Ondaatje. They make an emotional history. As he writes in the opening poem: &“Reading the lines he loves / he slips them into a pocket, / wishes to die with his clothes / full of torn free stanzas / and the telephone numbers / of his children in far cities&”. Poetry – where language is made to work hardest and burns with a gem-like flame – is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate history.