A celebrated and diverse group of poets have contributed the beautiful selections that make up Poetry of Presence. This book of mindfulness poems provides a refuge of quiet clarity that is much needed in today's restless, chaotic world. Every reader will find favorites to share and to return to, again and again.
This companion guide to POETRY OF PRESENCE, the popular anthology of mindfulness poems, includes a list of engaging reading strategies, fifty stimulating writing prompts, and a twelve-week workshop curriculum.
A stunning meditative poem that will help you say what you want to say when someone you love is dying. Read it for solace. Use it as a keepsake journal, attaching photographs, jotting down reminiscences and reflections. Share it during gatherings of farewell and remembrance. Offer it as a gift of compassion. However you choose to use it, may it bring you consolation.
Vigil: The Poetry of Presence, a collection of sixty-five poems, is written from the perspective of a seasoned hospice volunteer processing her varied experiences while being present and bearing witness to the sacred moments of dying. These unedited, tender and insightful poems, taken from the author's personal journal, are ready to be savored.
In The Mended Heart, author and poet Rhonda Milner brings readers an inspirational book of her poetry, prose, and photography, offering them comfort and hope when they are going through difficult times. Drawing from her own experiences of joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, she shares words that encourage and lift the spirits of those who need to be reminded they are not alone. The poetry and writings have been compiled over the past 3 years from her Healing Presence Ministry blog where she has gained a worldwide following of over 2.6 million fans on Facebook, along with Instagram. This book is a journey to hope, allowing readers from all walks of life, cultures, and faiths to connect with the thoughts and wisdom of the author as she leads them through the human and universal experiences of love (both love experienced as people and love as shown by God), the pain and yet gentle and inherent beauty of suffering, and the promise of hope. The heart is never the same after it’s been broken. But it can be healed. Ultimately, The Mended Heart brings readers to a place where they can recognize and experience God’s love, receiving help and blessing through the writings and honest reflections of someone who’s been down the road of both heartache and healing. This beautiful coffee-table gift book pairs the author’s writings with her original photography, speaking powerfully, gently, and honestly to the soul.
The 2016 winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Carolyn Forché When I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter what the current gives. When we reach the camp, there will be thousands like us. If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roads and waiting pastures of America. We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffalo as we used to many years ago, nor will we forage for the sweetest mangoes. I am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep. —from “Transmigration” Afterland is a powerful, essential collection of poetry that recounts with devastating detail the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Mai Der Vang is telling the story of her own family, and by doing so, she also provides an essential history of the Hmong culture’s ongoing resilience in exile. Many of these poems are written in the voices of those fleeing unbearable violence after U.S. forces recruited Hmong fighters in Laos in the Secret War against communism, only to abandon them after that war went awry. That history is little known or understood, but the three hundred thousand Hmong now living in the United States are living proof of its aftermath. With poems of extraordinary force and grace, Afterland holds an original place in American poetry and lands with a sense of humanity saved, of outrage, of a deep tradition broken by war and ocean but still intact, remembered, and lived.
Winner of the 2012 National Translation Award “What Sinan [Antoon] has done with In the Presence of Absence is a kind of miraculous work of dedication and love. Reading this volume is sheer enjoyment and sublimity.” —Saadi Yousef “There are two maps of Palestine that politicians will never manage to forfeit: the one kept in the memories of Palestinian refugees, and that which is drawn by Darwish’s poetry.” —Anton Shammas One of the most transcendent poets of his generation, Darwish composed this remarkable elegy at the apex of his creativity, but with the full knowledge that his death was imminent. Thinking it might be his final work, he summoned all his poetic genius to create a luminous work that defies categorization. In stunning language, Darwish’s self-elegy inhabits a rare space where opposites bleed and blend into each other. Prose and poetry, life and death, home and exile are all sung by the poet and his other. On the threshold of im/mortality, the poet looks back at his own existence, intertwined with that of his people. Through these lyrical meditations on love, longing, Palestine, history, friendship, family, and the ongoing conversation between life and death, the poet bids himself and his readers a poignant farewell.
2019 National Book Award Longlist: “Centering on black, female identity, [this is] an exquisite and thoughtful collection.” —Bustle This is about what grows through the wreckage. This is an anthem of survival and a look at what might come after. A view of what floats and what, ultimately, sustains. A finalist for the PEN Open Book Award, Build Yourself a Boat redefines the language of collective and individual trauma through lyric and memory. “With Build Yourself a Boat, Camonghne Felix heralds a thrillingly new form of storytelling.” —Morgan Parker, author of Magical Negro
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award! Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent. “Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice.” —Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation “An incredibly potent debut.” —Jason Reynolds, author of the National Book Award Finalist Ghost “Acevedo has amplified the voices of girls en el barrio who are equal parts goddess, saint, warrior, and hero.” —Ibi Zoboi, author of American Street This young adult novel, a selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List, is an excellent choice for accelerated tween readers in grades 6 to 8. Plus don't miss Elizabeth Acevedo's With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land!