Learning about the ancient Jewish tradition of midrash, a rabbinic form of textual interpretation that seeks and imagines answers to unanswerable questions, felt to Amy Bornman like a poetic invitation to re-engage with the Bible in a new way. There is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash – an award-winner in the Paraclete Poetry Prize competition – grew from a yearlong project to read the Bible daily, and write daily midrashic poems in response to the readings—to honor the text by wondering about, and struggling with, it. By engaging particular passages of scripture across the Old and New Testaments directly, these poems imagine new dimensions of the text, and make vivid connections to the world as it is now and to the author’s own life—emerging at year’s end with new hope in a future that at times feels impossible, as the days pile on days and the text’s enduring questions continue to ring.

Translated by David L. Schindler, JrIn what is one of the greatest Catholic poetic works of our century, Péguy offers a comprehensive theology ordered around the often-neglected second virtue which is incarnated inhis celebrated image of the ‘little girl Hope'.

An uplifting book of poems, Hope and Languish takes us on an emotional journey from the first news of the pandemic, through isolation, and finally to a place of hope. Day blends into daythe setting sunannounces the nightand right in betweenlet the bell ringlet each one raise their curtainslean out the windowstep onto the balconyand shout out rebelliouslywe will meet again Within two weeks of moving to Santa Monica lockdowns began and riots broke out. Having never lived in California before, forced isolation in a beachside studio provided Chenelle Bremont time for reflection and poetry.

A collection of poems in which a daughter reflects on the death of her beloved mother.

Alex Dimitrov’s third book, Love and Other Poems, is full of praise for the world we live in. Taking time as an overarching structure—specifically, the twelve months of the year—Dimitrov elevates the everyday, and speaks directly to the reader as if the poem were a phone call or a text message. From the personal to the cosmos, the moon to New York City, the speaker is convinced that love is “our best invention.” Dimitrov doesn’t resist joy, even in despair. These poems are curious about who we are as people and shamelessly interested in hope.

In his second collection of poems, we meet Félix Garmendía again after he has been settled in Washington Heights for years with his husband, Denis. With Denis, he and his wheelchair Purple Raven swing around Fort Tryon Park, the streets, the building, and the apartment in all seasons. There Félix bears witness to some of the most frightening occurrences of the last fifty years: the disinformation and bigotry of a feral, out-of-control administration, the explosion of racism, the pandemic, and the storming of the Capitol. Through his eyes we watch exhausted healthcare workers exit hospitals, still wearing their equipment, to a universal round of applause, played out differently in every New York neighborhood. We see Black people murdered by police. We shiver with anger at the blend of authoritarianism and misinformed rage that almost guts the heart of our democracy. And yet through it all, through Félix, we also find the grace and courage to laugh and find our own oases of hope. Félix is a poet, HIV+ survivor, and disabled due to Inclusion Body Myositis. He survived his early years in conservative Catholic Puerto Rico and arrived in Manhattan, New York City, in 1988. His poems narrate his life as a gay activist, poet, and storyteller in the face of illness and intolerance. Because of his Inclusion Body Myositis, Félix has become adept at typing with one finger. He has also become incredibly, enchantingly adept at capturing the mood of a year, a day, a season, a place. As in his first poetry collection, Flying On Invisible Wings, Félix sculpts with words the very heart of his wishes, hopes, failings, and cares. But here they are often the wishes, hopes, failings, and cares of a nation, as well. ​​​​​​​With Félix, we emerge from the deluge that the last few years have brought into our lives. We find the calm place again.

A collection of poems about frogs and dragonflies, wind and rain, a visit to the tree farm, the garden hose, and other familiar parts of indoor and outdoor life.

A gripping, eerie, and hilarious novel-in-verse from poet Matthew Rohrer. In a Russian-doll of fictional episodes, we follow a midlevel publishing assistant over the course of a day as he encounters ghost stories, science fiction adventures, Victorian hashish eating, and robot bigfoots. Rohrer mesmerizes with wildly imaginative tales and resonant verse in this compelling love letter to storytelling. this night they all seemed asleep for a while the stark shadows held me only my mind moved wildly behind my eyes until I heard a tiny song coming from the driver song of a bandit’s broken heart, song of his betrayal I slept and dreamed I was awake Matthew Rohrer is the author of Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.

The bestselling poet Malcolm Guite chooses forty poems from across the centuries that express the universal experience of loss and reflects on them in order to draw out the comfort, understanding and hope they offer. Some of the poems will be familiar, many will be new, but together they provide a sure companion for the journey across difficult terrain. Some of Malcolm’s own poetry is included, written out of his work as a priest with the dying and the bereaved and giving to the volume a powerful authenticity. The choice of forty poems is significant and reflects an ancient practice still observed in some European and Middle Eastern societies of taking extra-special care of a bereaved person in the forty days following a death – our word quarantine come from this. They explore the nature and the risk of love, the pain of letting go and look toward glimpses of resurrection.

Faith, Hope and Poetry explores the poetic imagination as a way of knowing; a way of seeing reality more clearly. Presenting a series of critical appreciations of English poetry from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day, Malcolm Guite applies the insights of poetry to contemporary issues and the contribution poetry can make to our religious knowing and the way we 'do Theology'. Readers of this book will return to their reading of poetry equipped with new insights and enthusiasm and will be challenged to integrate imaginative ways of knowing into their other academic and intellectual pursuits.