POETRY: A Delightful Journey Through Life is an arrangement of over eighty well-selected classical poems into eight basic life stages in which most people pass through or experience in the course of a lifetime. These eight stages are Childhood, Beyond a Bumbling Society, In Search of Love, On Pain and Irony, Satisfaction with the Simple Things of Life, The Seasons, On Death, and Lines to Lift and Inspire. Each of the eight stages is first introduced within an appropriate setting or frame of mind under which the selected poems follow. The reader is then carefully introduced to each poem, making it more readily understood. Inasmuch as poetry generally uses figurative symbols and imagery, the reader, coming from any number of backgrounds of education and experience, is allowed to put his or her own finishing touches on the poem, and can thus experience personal enjoyment from the poetic images embodied in the poems.

From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.

A picture-book biography of celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize A 2021 Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor Book A 2021 Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book A 2021 Association of Library Service to Children Notable Children's Book Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) is known for her poems about “real life.” She wrote about love, loneliness, family, and poverty—showing readers how just about anything could become a beautiful poem. Exquisite follows Gwendolyn from early girlhood into her adult life, showcasing her desire to write poetry from a very young age. This picture-book biography explores the intersections of race, gender, and the ubiquitous poverty of the Great Depression—all with a lyrical touch worthy of the subject. Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize, receiving the award for poetry in 1950. And in 1958, she was named the poet laureate of Illinois. A bold artist who from a very young age dared to dream, Brooks will inspire young readers to create poetry from their own lives.

"I write hungry sentences," Natalie Diaz once explained in an interview, "because they want more and more lyricism and imagery to satisfy them." This debut collection is a fast-paced tour of Mojave life and family narrative: A sister fights for or against a brother on meth, and everyone from Antigone, Houdini, Huitzilopochtli, and Jesus is invoked and invited to hash it out. These darkly humorous poems illuminate far corners of the heart, revealing teeth, tails, and more than a few dreams. I watched a lion eat a man like a piece of fruit, peel tendons from fascia like pith from rind, then lick the sweet meat from its hard core of bones. The man had earned this feast and his own deliciousness by ringing a stick against the lion's cage, calling out Here, Kitty Kitty, Meow! With one swipe of a paw much like a catcher's mitt with fangs, the lion pulled the man into the cage, rattling his skeleton against the metal bars. The lion didn't want to do it— He didn't want to eat the man like a piece of fruit and he told the crowd this: I only wanted some goddamn sleep . . . Natalie Diaz was born and raised on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation in Needles, California. After playing professional basketball for four years in Europe and Asia, Diaz returned to the states to complete her MFA at Old Dominion University. She lives in Surprise, Arizona, and is working to preserve the Mojave language.

“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to be somebody, but she was always told that she was nothing.” The writer in Juanita Gaskin remained dormant as depression and life circumstances held her back. Renaissance Dreams refers to the rebirth of passions delayed and of hope to come. Juanita reinvented her place in life by not letting fear or the disapproval of others determine her path. She walked through dark times and managed to walk into the light. This book is a reflection of her life in poetry and photography. Through poetry, Juanita wrote of her depression; it was her form of therapy and gave her the strength to push beyond the madness to find the inner woman that was lost. Writing was her way of releasing the pain and finding comfort. She awoke to a new beginning. It’s a battle with the self, when you reach for a goal with no one there to help you through or cheer you forward. You wonder whether you have the strength to keep fighting—but you must believe in yourself. It takes a positive mind to get you where you truly belong. Juanita hopes that someone out there will read her book and find the courage to hold on just a little longer. Keep strong, because hope is on the way.

Tells story of Irena Sendler who organized the rescue of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II, and the teenagers who started the investigation into Irena's heroism.

Hafez is one of the best known medieval Persian mystic poets, as celebrated and popular as his near contemporary Rumi. As with Rumi, modern translations have a strong appeal to today's readers. Both ardent mystic and lover, Hafez fuses earthly and divine love.

Poetry. Women's Studies. This masterful debut reveals for each reader new depths of nature, self, family, and world by opening our tiniest and most intimate perceptions. Colburn's poetics balances image with absence, silence with sound. These elegant poems take on the questions of our day: can we have our sweet domestic lives when the life of the planet hangs in the balance? What does it mean to create and nurture a new human being in this perilous age?