In the area of ballpark hopping, there have been a number of accounts written, recorded or talked about in recent times, sometimes for a cause or others just as a gimmick. Through Poet in the Grandstand, poet and writer Thomas Porky McDonald gives us a most unique twist on a preoccupation which has grown in the past few decades, in the wake of the closings of classic old yards and the birth of the more entertainment and nostalgia driven open-air parks. From his first trip in 1990, to the fabled Comiskey Park of Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill Veeck and the Go-Go Sox, on through to the 2010 opening of Minnesotas fabulous Target Field, featuring the modern M&M Boys, Joe Mauer and Justin Mourneau, McDonald offers up a book that is part travelogue and part poetic tribute to all the places that men and women have gone to over the years for a very personal sense of joy. This journey, done methodically, over two decades, picks up steam as the chapters begin to flow. The effect of McDonald himself clearly growing as a poet through the years is accentuated by the fact that more and more pieces are written in the later trips. The end result is a most interesting volume of not just ballparks, but Americana, as numerous attractions taken in during those ballpark weeks and weekends are also noted and/or dissected. For fourteen seasons on his own and then six more accompanied by friend and confidant Adam Boneker, McDonalds travels, highlighted by over 300 poems, can take the reader back to a simpler time or into the possibilities of the future. In chapter and in verse, Poet in the Grandstand has something for both the baseball enthusiast and the curious traveler. Fans of the game and lovers of the road will each find much to offer within these pages.

After going to various states on the Major League landscape over 21 seasons, poet/writer Thomas Porky McDonald came upon the notion of continuing to tour the rest of the contiguous United States, using Minor League parks as a starting point. A pair of Western tours with his niece Jaclyn and her son Alex, as well as a stop in Graceland with his sister Patti, would be in the mix, with each stop bringing out more of McDonald’s signature poetry. Poet in the Parks is a sequel of sorts, as the earliest trips chronicled feature returns to Major League parks with his Poet in the Grandstand road partner, Adam Boneker, who later hits the Minors trail with McDonald, as well as a stop in New Orleans during the time of a World Pandemic. Ultimately, this second travel/poetry volume is merely a quest to savor the American landscape, no matter how many cities, states, parks and places of interest you pass through along the way.

Why does talk about politics and moral issues tend to get so ugly, heated, and personal? So much public discussion goes awry because people are using it for the wrong reasons. Too often, especially online, people engage in moral grandstanding--they use moral talk to impress others by showing them they have the right views. Tosi and Warmke show why people behave this way, why it's wrong, and what we can do about it.

A random poem, written on a birthday years before, finds a new life when a series of interrelated profiles come together in a most unexpected way. This is what constitutes A Walk in the City, writer/poet Thomas Porky McDonald's New York City travelogue. A compilation of pieces written originally for an internal website at his workplace in New York City transit, this volume shares brief, yet effective vignettes on a number of various sites in the city--some famous, and others hardly on the radar. It is dedicated to the average tourist and/or the lifetime New Yorker. McDonald's love of the place he's called home for his entire life comes across most vibrantly. Though the outer boroughs are touched upon transiently, this collection of go-to sketches and reminisces is centered mainly in Manhattan, which--as any New Yorker knows--is the place that all those who live in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island call "The City." From the world famous sites, like the Empire State Building and Times Square to hidden jewels like the New York City Transit Museum, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, or the New York City Fire Museum, A Walk in the City provides something for anyone seeking interesting pit stops in New York, whether planned ahead or merely in the course of a day already begun. The book is subtitled An Incomplete Tour since it is McDonald's contention that no one could truly put every point of interest in the city into a single volume. Here, an unencumbered collection of articles attempts to send the reader out in search of something that cannot be explained without actually having the experience of being there. In any case, this is a city wanderers' bonanza, one that should be considered by anyone who aspires to explore the diverse venues located in the greatest city in the world.

The eighth five-book collection of poetry by poet and writer Thomas Porky McDonald, After the Dream: Poems 2009-2011, brings the author even closer to home than in his previous work, with a thought to where the world is headed. The title poems for each of the five books in the mix, Born in the City, The Class of No Return, Touched by Life, Back to Astoria and What Lies Ahead, all speak of a man still searching to incorporate his early life into the realities of the 21st Century. Other notable pieces from each collection include “Friendships to Eternity,” “Together One, as Always” (City), “While the Leaves Blew,” “Always too Old to Change Anything” (Class), “When the Game Simply Took You Away,” “I’ve Never Forgotten About Friendship” (Life), “Scenes From a Lost Neighborhood,” “When Fear Overrides Our Humanity” (Astoria), “Needed in the Land of the Needy” and “A Glimpse of Bernadine” (Ahead). A solid entry from the still wandering and wondering balladeer.

With a wide range of subjects and drawing from events in her life and the Bible, Norah Ranck has written a heartwarming collection of inspirational poems and prayers that will enchant the reader. You will find love, sympathy, courage, and more in this collection. Each poem is an honest account of the everyday adventure of a life lived in faith. It is a book you will want to return to again and again.

A bilingual edition of one of Guillaume Apollinaire's most important volumes of poetry, with extensive commentary by the translators.

Poems by Divine Appointment are poems with purpose. They were written to inspire and to stir up your spirit. You will find some of these poems are quite long while others are very short. Nevertheless, each poem has a message that’s clear and get straight to the point leaving nothing to the imagination. These poems are power packed, and I hope every reader will experience the presence of God through reading these poems. Yes, Poems by Divine Appointment are mine, but they came from God’s creative mind. Now allow me to give you a little peek inside of the book with this poem. What’s In the Sea I’ve seen deep in the sea, Things we are about to see. There are a lot of things in the sea, But it’s nothing that I can’t see. Fishermen are on the sea Trying to catch what they can’t see. The birds of the air; the fish of the sea Will make do with what they see. Don’t be disturbed by what you see, It’s just the beginning of what it’s going to be. I’ve seen deep in the sea, Trouble stirring in the sea. Memphis, Tennessee Will soon be nothing to see. Things are stirring up in the sea, Things you are about to see. When I looked across the sea, I saw things I didn’t want to see. I’ve been fishing in the sea To catch what the fishermen couldn’t see. Who made the sea? The one you cannot see. I’ve seen deep in the sea, Things that’s about to be. Memphis, Tennessee Is about to be nothing to see.

“[An] important work . . . inspiring its readers to greater human connection and to keep fighting the good fight.”—The Rumpus In this new collection of poems, Martín Espada crosses the borderlands of epiphany and blasphemy: from a pilgrimage to the tomb of Frederick Douglass to an encounter with the swimming pool at a center of torture and execution in Chile, from the adolescent discovery of poet Omar Khayyám to the death of an "illegal" Mexican immigrant. from "The Trouble Ball" On my father's island, there were hurricanes and tuberculosis, dissidents in jail and baseball. The loudspeakers boomed: Satchel Paige pitching for the Brujos of Guayama. From the Negro Leagues he brought the gifts of Baltasar the King; from a bench on the plaza he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball, The Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz, The Thoughtful Stuff. Pancho Coímbre hit rainmakers for the Leones of Ponce; Satchel sat the outfielders in the grass to play poker, windmilled three pitches to the plate, and Pancho spun around three times. He couldn't hit The Trouble Ball.