A major account of modern poetry, from one of its leading figures. James Fenton examines issues of creativity and the 'earning' of success, of judgement, tutorage, rivalry, and ambition. He considers the juvenilia of Wilfred Owen, the 'scarred' lines of Philip Larkin, the inheritance of imperialism, and issues of 'constituency' in Seamus Heaney. The book contains insights into the work of Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, D. H. Lawrence, and W. H. Auden.

Intended for general readers and for students and scholars of poetry, Poetry as Survival is a complex and lucid analysis of the powerful role poetry can play in confronting, surviving, and transcending pain and suffering. Gregory Orr draws from a generous array of sources. He weaves discussions of work by Keats, Dickinson, and Whitman with quotes from three-thousand-year-old Egyptian poems, Inuit songs, and Japanese love poems to show that writing personal lyric has helped poets throughout history to process emotional and experiential turmoil, from individual stress to collective grief. More specifically, he considers how the acts of writing, reading, and listening to lyric bring ordering powers to the chaos that surrounds us. Moving into more contemporary work, Orr looks at the poetry of Sylvia Plath, Stanley Kunitz, and Theodore Roethke, poets who relied on their own work to get through painful psychological experiences. As a poet who has experienced considerable trauma--especially as a child--Orr refers to the damaging experiences of his past and to the role poetry played in his ability to recover and survive. His personal narrative makes all the more poignant and vivid Orr's claims for lyric poetry's power as a tool for healing. Poetry as Survival is a memorable and inspiring introduction to lyric poetry's capacity to help us find safety and comfort in a threatening world.

A wry collection of poems in three parts, one of which is devoted to the dangers of love and the love of danger. A sample: "Beauty, danger and dismay / Met me on the public way. / Whichever I chose, I chose dismay." The other two parts comprise songs on political violence. By the author of Children in Exile.

"Using traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean, the bull-jean stories give cultural documentation and social commentary on African-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural South of the 1920s, the bull-jean stories herald the spirit of African-American people."--PUBLISHER.

Discover a Deeper Connection to Your Artist Self! Artists and athletes alike benefit from strength training. Building creative stamina takes encouragement, mentoring, and regular practice. In Creative Strength Training, you'll discover powerful strategies that combine writing and hands-on art-making to overcome creative stumbling blocks, develop a unique voice and make creating art a regular habit. • Overcome resistance while dismantling "the Committee" (that group of inner critics). • Explore 10 exercises for making art that stands apart as uniquely yours. • Receive support and inspiration from contributing artists who share how each chapter has improved their practice and helped them evolve. Begin a fresh approach to your creative practice. Begin building stamina today with Creative Strength Training! "In a world of bookshelves lined with self-help guides to overhauling ourselves, Jane Dunnewold gives us, instead, a way to discover ourselves. Creative Strength Training is a gift to the artist just starting out, and a powerful resource for those of us who feel like we may have grown stale." --Mary Fisher, artist and AIDS activist "Jane's approach will resonate with anyone who has ever been stymied in his or her attempt to be original and creative. She guides readers on a journey of self-discovery to seek the core of the creative spirit. This newfound self-awareness and confidence is sure to unleash brand new avenues of creativity for those who read this important new work." --Maureen Hendricks, owner of Gateway Canyons Resort, home of Alegre Quilt Retreat "Jane Dunnewold's approach to the creative process is as refreshing as it is realistic--building stamina means making your art a priority. This method feels at once personal and prolific--a must-have for anyone looking to push his/her boundaries." --Joe Pitcher, founder of textileartist.org

“This is a book for anyone,” Glyn Maxwell declares of On Poetry. A guide to the writing of poetry and a defense of the art, it will be especially prized by writers and readers who wish to understand why and how poetic technique matters. When Maxwell states, “With rhyme what matters is the distance between rhymes” or “the line-break is punctuation,” he compresses into simple, memorable phrases a great deal of practical wisdom. In seven chapters whose weird, gnomic titles announce the singularity of the book—“White,” “Black,” “Form,” “Pulse,” “Chime,” “Space,” and “Time”—the poet explores his belief that the greatest verse arises from a harmony of mind and body, and that poetic forms originate in human necessities: breath, heartbeat, footstep, posture. “The sound of form in poetry descended from song, molded by breath, is the sound of that creature yearning to leave a mark. The meter says tick-tock. The rhyme says remember. The whiteness says alone,” Maxwell writes. To illustrate his argument, he draws upon personal touchstones such as Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. An experienced teacher, Maxwell also takes us inside the world of the creative writing class, where we learn from the experiences of four aspiring poets. “You master form you master time,” Maxwell says. In this guide to the most ancient and sublime of the realms of literature, Maxwell shares his mastery with us.

Selected by Joy Harjo as the winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets Emily Skaja’s debut collection is a fiery, hypnotic book that confronts the dark questions and menacing silences around gender, sexuality, and violence. Brute arises, brave and furious, from the dissolution of a relationship, showing how such endings necessitate self-discovery and reinvention. The speaker of these poems is a sorceress, a bride, a warrior, a lover, both object and agent, ricocheting among ways of knowing and being known. Each incarnation squares itself up against ideas of feminine virtue and sin, strength and vulnerability, love and rage, as it closes in on a hard-won freedom. Brute is absolutely sure of its capacity to insist not only on the truth of what it says but on the truth of its right to say it. “What am I supposed to say: I’m free?” the first poem asks. The rest of the poems emphatically discover new ways to answer. This is a timely winner of the Walt Whitman Award, and an introduction to an unforgettable voice.

A Little Book of Poetry: For When Night Seems Dark is a collection of powerful and moving poems which remind us that although we will have difficulties in this world, we are not alone, unseen, or forgotten. That although at times we may feel like a small, insignificant being in this giant universe, we are of great importance to the One who created us. That in this world, we will experience joy and sorrow, tears and laughter, beginnings and endings, but with God at our side, we need never be without hope. This Little book is made up of 26 poems, each accompanied by a Bible verse and an original, full-color illustration.

Inheritance is a black sensorium, a chapel of color and sound that speaks to spaciousness, surveillance, identity, desire, and transcendence. Influenced by everyday moments of Washington, DC living, the poems live outside of the outside and beyond the language of categorical difference, inviting anyone listening to listen a bit closer. Inheritance is about the self’s struggle with definition and assumption.