This is a "how I did it" book on surviving PTSD, and how the author coped with various symptoms, and could be very useful for other veterans. The author explains, in vivid detail, just how he did it, how he managed to work in various fields, even jobs for which he had no experience and losing them all due to not being able to control his anger. Detailing some statistics that are worthwhile to veterans suffering with PTSD, this book is a must-read and could be a guide to good living with those symptoms. Johnson goes into detail, on a number of subjects, known to problematic for veterans with PTSD, and he explains a series of steps to take, enabling the average veteran with PTSD to live an above-average life.
Innately, I felt I had to write and take the meds forever as a new routine that would keep my blood pressure at a healthy personal level. I had to fight! Relate it to cancer. Encompassing in-comprehendible diagnoses sparking an inner-fire driving me to get through the six months of negativity, I wrote and created Howe You Can Achieve If You Believe, Exclaimed Rhymes and Family and Friends! The other nine poems in order of publication evolved in the next three months with much more in the pipeline! While preparing for publication I realized the first poem represents the Mental Alpha and the last poem in this series- Suicide the ultimate Mental Omega! My goal is to inspire others with dreams and aspirations. Put a smile on your face and let it gleam! Always Dream! Always Dream! Always Dream!
While there is a tacit appreciation that freedom from violence will lead to more prosperous relations among peoples, violence continues to be deployed for various political and social ends. Yet the problem of violence still defies neat description, subject to many competing interpretations. Histories of Violence offers an accessible yet compelling examination of the problem of violence as it appears in the corpus of canonical figures – from Hannah Arendt to Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault to Slavoj Žižek – who continue to influence and inform contemporary political, philosophical, sociological, cultural, and anthropological study. Written by a team of internationally renowned experts, this is an essential interrogation of post-war critical thought as it relates to violence.
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.
“Nye once again deftly charts the world through verse.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A beautifully constructed, thoughtful, and inspiring collection.”—School Library Journal (starred review) Young People’s Poet Laureate and National Book Award Finalist Naomi Shihab Nye’s uncommon and unforgettable voice offers readers peace, humor, inspiration, and solace. This volume of almost one hundred original poems is a stunning and engaging tribute to the diverse voices past and present that comfort us, compel us, lead us, and give us hope. “I think the air is full of voices. If we slow down and practice listening, we hear those voices better. They live on in us. Inspiration? We need it every day. We deserve it. It is essential, like food, water, clean air, shelter. Here are some poems celebrating the voices that have changed my life and continue to do so.”—Naomi Shihab Nye, Award-winning poet and author Voices in the Air is a collection of almost one hundred original poems written by the award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye in honor of the artists, writers, poets, historical figures, ordinary people, and diverse luminaries from past and present who inspire her and us. Full of words of encouragement, solace, and hope, this collection offers a message of peace and empathy. Voices in the Air focuses on the inspirational people who strengthen and motivate us to create, to open our hearts, and to live rewarding and graceful lives. With short informational bios about the influential figures behind each poem, and a transcendent introduction by the poet, this is a collection to cherish, read again and again, and share with others. Featuring black-and-white spot art throughout, as well as brief bios of the “voices,” an index, and an introduction by the author.
A creative cultural history of Dallas through the lens of its defining twentieth century event: JFK's assassination. The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, shocked America. Instantly, Dallas was blamed for the killing, labeled “the City of Hate.” In the half century since the president’s murder, this city’s artists and writers have produced important, if often overlooked, work that speaks to the difficult burden of our civic shaming. Here are the works of poetry, theater, journalism, art, the actions of our citizens and political leaders, all the fragments of our cultural life that address this tortured local history. The City That Killed the President is a fitful discourse offering a window into Dallas itself, a city reluctant to grapple with its past.
Stop trauma in its tracks, address disruptive behaviors, and create a safe and nurturing school environment with a neuroscience-based approach in your classroom. More than 32 million children in the US suffer from trauma symptoms. Some have had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), like neglect, abuse, violence, and loss, or have experienced distress from medical trauma and social injustice. Toxic traumatic stress shapes the structure and function of both brain and body, which can lead to anxiety, hyperactivity, aggression, shutting down, and acting out--emotions and behaviors that hinder learning and create classroom chaos. Maggie Kline, a family therapist, trauma specialist, school psychologist, and former teacher, gives you whole-brain, heart-centered tools to identify and reverse trauma-driven behaviors so students feel supported and safe. Her unique roadmap will empower you to facilitate positive school-wide outcomes as you learn: How trauma alters kids' brains causing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral challenges Evidence-based somatic, relational, and mindfulness interventions to rewire reactivity How to manage Pre-K-12 classrooms to promote empathy, cooperation, and belonging Social equity practices so kids from all backgrounds feel safe, valued, and joyful Concrete steps to restore resilience following natural and man-made catastrophes
A timely and moving collection from the renowned inaugural poet on issues facing our country and people—immigration, gun violence, racism, LGBTQ issues, and more. Through an oracular yet intimate and accessible voice, Richard Blanco addresses the complexities and contradictions of our nationhood and the unresolved sociopolitical matters that affect us all. Blanco digs deep into the very marrow of our nation through poems that interrogate our past and present, grieve our injustices, and note our flaws, but also remember to celebrate our ideals and cling to our hopes. Charged with the utopian idea that no single narrative is more important than another, this book asserts that America could and ought someday to be a country where all narratives converge into one, a country we can all be proud to love and where we can all truly thrive. The poems form a mosaic of seemingly varied topics: the Pulse nightclub massacre; an unexpected encounter on a visit to Cuba; the forced exile of 8,500 Navajos in 1868; a lynching in Alabama; the arrival of a young Chinese woman at Angel Island in 1938; the incarceration of a gifted writer; and the poet’s abiding love for his partner, who he is finally allowed to wed as a gay man. But despite each poem’s unique concern or occasion, all are fundamentally struggling with the overwhelming question of how to love this country.
When I am in a hospital or hurting in silence, I want Chaplain Luis Gomez to comfort me and lead me deeper into truth and trusting in the Living God. His poems are written out of his own experiences. (Like David the Psalmist). He encourages us to grasp the hand of the Savior. Luis has helped thousands of people, people in destitute, people enslaved, people of various disabilities, people abandoned, people dying and people who feels hopeless. Luiss poems are real, his works bring us to light and life in our Lord. Dr. J. Scott Horrell Professor of Theological Studies Dallas Theological Seminary For those days when we need comfort through awe inspiring poems and reflections that covers every facet of human emotions, his eloquent and sensitivity in his style of writing are to be cherished by every household. He truly has a beautiful gift in writing poems. By Ms. Lynell Brignac, RN, ASN and Co-Author of Nursing Jambalaya with Gumbo on the Side
The Partition of 1947 has influenced the works of an entire generation of writers, and continues to do so. Gulzar witnessed the horrors of Partition first-hand and it is a theme that he has gone back to again and again in his writings. Footprints on Zero Line brings together a collection of his finest writings -- fiction, non-fiction and poems -- on the subject. What sets this collection apart from other writings on Partition is that Gulzar's unerring eye does not stop at the events of 1947 but looks at how it continues to affect our lives to this day. Wonderfully rendered in English by well-known author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, this collection marks seventy years of India's Independence. Footprints on Zero Line is not only a brilliant collection on a cataclysmic event in the history of our nation by one of our finest contemporary writers, it is also a timely reminder that those who forget the errors of the past are doomed to repeat them.