In a world that is yet cold and without mercy, and that is so full of despair and pain, now comes a hope of healing that is transferable through the powerful words of this book. In this impactful and life-affirming book These Poems, Those Times, This God, you’ll take a inspirational journey through the life of a poet who documents and recounts the trying times of life that can easily crush us all if not then combated. This referential book covers various topics of life such as Inspiration from God, the state of our nation, the state of the family, the circle of love/past hurts meeting future blessings, religion versus relationship with God, and praise and adoration for our creator in life. The purpose of this book These Poems, Those Times, This God is to serve as a reference of truth and guidance for any man or woman, boy or girl, who then seeks direction when feeling misguided and to encourage the discouraged in life to yet keep their faith and trust in God. For truly it’s not about what a person has done or can do that then determines your future, but rather how you respond to what they have done that then ultimately determines your fate.

In this dynamic collection of poems, Drew Jackson explores the first eight chapters of Luke's Gospel. These are declarative poems, faithfully proclaiming the gospel story in all its liberative power. Here the gospel is the "fresh words / that speak of / things impossible." This powerful poetry helps us hear the hum of deliverance—against all hope—that's been in the gospel all along.

WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY Natalie Diaz’s highly anticipated follow-up to When My Brother Was an Aztec, winner of an American Book Award Postcolonial Love Poem is an anthem of desire against erasure. Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried in its pages—bodies of language, land, rivers, suffering brothers, enemies, and lovers—be touched and held as beloveds. Through these poems, the wounds inflicted by America onto an indigenous people are allowed to bloom pleasure and tenderness: “Let me call my anxiety, desire, then. / Let me call it, a garden.” In this new lyrical landscape, the bodies of indigenous, Latinx, black, and brown women are simultaneously the body politic and the body ecstatic. In claiming this autonomy of desire, language is pushed to its dark edges, the astonishing dunefields and forests where pleasure and love are both grief and joy, violence and sensuality. Diaz defies the conditions from which she writes, a nation whose creation predicated the diminishment and ultimate erasure of bodies like hers and the people she loves: “I am doing my best to not become a museum / of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out. // I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible.” Postcolonial Love Poem unravels notions of American goodness and creates something more powerful than hope—in it, a future is built, future being a matrix of the choices we make now, and in these poems, Diaz chooses love.

In The God of Longing, Brent Calderwood weaves classical allusion and pop culture together as the speaker moves across the continent from New York to San Francisco, and through states of desire, loss, and nostalgia?longing in all its forms?to come to a sort of wry wisdom about relationships. By turns witty and earnest, erotic and heartbreaking, The God of Longing uses a clear narrative tone that is both plainspoken and sonically rich to ponder love affairs and childhood homophobia, and uses tight traditional forms to take on nontraditional topics--a sonnet about Kate Chopin's The Awakening, for example, or villanelles about online dating and Margaret Cho. Taken together, they announce the arrival of a gifted new voice in American poetry.

Poetry has always been a central element of Christian spirituality and is increasingly used in worship, in pastoral services and guided meditation. Here, Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite transforms 70 lectionary readings into inspiring poems for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat.

Sacred poetry from twelve mystics and saints, rendered brilliantly by Daniel Ladinsky, beloved interpreter of verses by the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz One of 6 Books Oprah Loves to Give as Gifts During the Holidays “All kinds of beautiful poetry.” –Hoda Kotb In this luminous collection, Daniel Ladinsky—best known for his bestselling interpretations of the great Sufi poet Hafiz—brings together the timeless work of twelve of the world’s finest spiritual writers, six from the East and six from the West. Once again, Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating profound and playful renditions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi’s joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis’s loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir’s wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa’s sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Sufi poet Hafiz—these along with inspiring works by Rabia, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mira, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram are all “love poems by God” from writers considered “conduits of the divine.” Together, they form a spiritual treasure to cherish always.

The book of Psalms is perhaps the most cherished book in the Old Testament. In this lively volume, two experienced teachers invite us to read and explore the Psalter and roam widely among its poems. Invitation to the Psalms introduces the dynamics of the biblical text, helping students of the Bible become careful and attentive readers. This clear and concise guide covers how to read Hebrew poetry, the Psalter's basic genres, the idea of "the psalmist," the metaphorical world of the Psalms, and the theology of the Psalms. It gives readers confidence to explore the Psalms on their own and could readily be used in the first weeks of class to orient students to the Psalms. The second edition of this popular textbook, now updated and expanded, adds a chapter on the shape and shaping of the Psalter and sidebars that highlight the use of the Psalms in popular culture. Discussion questions are also included.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

This book was titled Poems from God Vol. I because when I wrote poems for church programs, school assignments, or to cheer friends and family up on Facebook, I asked God to give me the words to write. Furthermore, I wrote a little for my family when our loved ones had passed away. When something as devastating as a loved one passing away happens it is hard to find the words, so I ask God to give me the words to write, and I believe He did in "Poems From God Volume I."

This work by Nancy deClaisse-Walford, Rolf Jacobson, and Beth Tanner is the most complete and detailed one-volume commentary available on the Psalms. Significantly, the volume reflects the combined insights of three superior (younger) biblical scholars. DeClaisse-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner offer a succinct introduction to the Psalter, a new translation of all the psalms that takes special account of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and individual entries on each psalm unit. Throughout the book they draw on state-of-the-art research on the canonical shape and shaping of the Psalter and evidence a nuanced attention to the poetic nature of the psalms.