Peonies into Sambal is the second poetry collection by Phedora but the first to be debuted under her own name. Phedora penned her journey as a Malaysian of Kadazan and Chinese descent navigating adulthood. Her collection dives into the process of sambal-making by seeking to accept, process, and define the self through finding love, losing hearts, and self-exploration on what it means to find a home.
This is a emotionally charged tribute to the author's late husband, detailing his life and death as well as his reappearance in various guises. Rooted in the elegance and reality of nature and family, Priscilla Ellsworth's poems become a gift, a primer on 'how to live / and how to die.' In an early poem she chides, 'Husband, wake up!' She is a wife who wants her husband's presence. Life: travel with family, work in the garden with him, the joy of his peonies - 'What if we had lived like this all our days?' Death arrives midway in the book: 'So this is it.' That single line, poignant, direct, straight to the heart. The poem 'Dawn Fire' which follows with its description of hunters and needless death takes one's breath away. In 'New Widow, ' when Ellsworth writes, 'For now my heart is a garden that cannot be turned, ' she keeps us in the rhythm of the natural world: for all its death, it will bring spring. Here are poems to trust."
One of the astonishing aspects of [Oliver's] work is the consistency of tone over this long period. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets. . . . These poems sustain us rather than divert us. Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.
Published originally in 1910, this charming collection of flower poems and full-color illustrations animates the 82 flowers included in the book. From Crocus to Holly, the flowers are ordered in the book as each would appear throughout the year in a garden. Each illustration is half child and half flower, creating a wonderful way for children to see themselves in the natural world.
Peony has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father, a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Nor has she ever ventured outside the cloistered women's quarters of the family villa. As her sixteenth birthday approaches she finds herself betrothed to a man she does not know, but Peony has dreams of her own. Her father engages a theatrical troupe to perform scenes from The Peony Pavilion, a Chinese epic opera, in their garden amidst the scent of ginger, green tea and jasmine. 'Unmarried girls should not be seen in public,' says Peony's mother, but her father allows the women to watch from behind a screen. Here, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately bewitched. So begins her unforgettable journey of love, desire, sorrow and redemption.
Some Glad Morning, Barbara Crooker’s ninth book of poetry, teeters between joy and despair, faith and doubt, the disconnect between lived experience and the written word. Primarily a lyric poet, Crooker is in love with the beauty and mystery of the natural world, even as she recognizes its fragility. But she is also a poet unafraid to write about the consequences of our politics, the great divide. She writes as well about art, with ekphrastic poems on paintings by Hopper, O’Keeffe, Renoir, Matisse, Cézanne, and others. Many of the poems are elegaic in tone, an older writer tallying up her losses. Her work embodies Bruce Springsteen’s dictum, “it ain’t no sin to be glad we’re alive,” as she celebrates the explosion of spring peonies, chocolate mousse, a good martini, hummingbirds’ flashy metallics, the pewter light of September, Darryl Dawkins (late NBA star), saltine crackers. While she recognizes it might all be about to slip away, “Remember that nothing is ever lost,” she writes, and somehow, we do.
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Kenn Nesbitt's hilarious poetry is adored by kids. They just can't get enough of the great beats, wonderful imagery, and good ol' belly laughs his poetry contains! With over a hundred poems included, most of them new but some old favorites too, My Hippo Has the Hiccups is a laugh-out-loud good time. The audio CD features lots of the great poem readings and zany humor that make Kenn one of the most widely sought school speakers in the country. From angry vegetables to misbehaving robots to the boy who is only half a werewolf, these are all officially poems Kenn totally made up: my robot does my homework! | i bought a pet banana! | when vegetables are angry... Be sure to visit Kenn online at the world's most popular poetry site for kids: poetry4kids.com
