Within each of us, there is a spark, a light in our souls that never dies. It is the gift that is divine, which God has given us. It takes the form of art, math, teaching, writing, poetry, counseling, and something magical. The darkness of the world and the illusions of technology have distracted us with their illusions and images of who we are not, instead of helping us find the light inside ourselves, which is the gift from God. I wanted to write a series of poems that encourage others to find the light in their souls and, in the process, be happy doing what they are supposed to be doing and being who they are meant to be instead of wasting their lives away, trying to please others and the images of who others want them to be. Within each of us, there is a spark of the divinethe soul, your light. We need you to find the light within yourself so you can shine with your light and make the world a less dark and a happier place. This is my soul, and these are my words. Kassi Ydris, January 4, 2018, Costa Mesa, California, USA
A translation of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet's collection of poems celebrating the beauty and nature of love and the passions, fears, pain, and anguish of human existence
A reprint of trans poet, activist, and teacher TC Tolbert's beloved debut collection of poetry. In Gephyromania (literally, an addiction to or an obsession with bridges), Tolbert's choice isn't between female and male, lover and self, or loss and relief, but rather to live in the places where those binaries meet. Is a bridge simply an attempt to connect one body back to itself? Sensing the parallels between a lover who leaves and his own female body as it chooses to recede, the poems in Gephyromania explore the spaces between, among, across, and even within bodies.
Constellarium chronicles the author's gender transition from biological male to female, and engages the ontological quandaries that arise from this experience. Family history and religious heritage must be reckoned with along the way. In Rice's poems, the evolving nature of the self, the fluidity of identity, and the lasting influence of the past are all held up to the soul's penetrating gaze.
Sensual, earthy love poems that formed the basis for the popular movie Il Postino, now in a beautiful gift book perfect for weddings, Valentine's Day, anniversaries, or just to say "I love you!" Charged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda’s love poems caused a scandal when published anonymously in 1952. In later editions, these verses became the most celebrated of the Noble Prize winner’s oeuvre, captivating readers with earthbound images that reveal in gentle lingering lines an erotic re-imagining of the world through the prism of a lover’s body: "today our bodies became vast, they grew to the edge of the world / and rolled melting / into a single drop / of wax or meteor...." Written on the paradisal island of Capri, where Neruda "took refuge" in the arms of his lover Matilde Urrutia, Love Poems embraces the seascapes around them, saturating the images of endless shores and waves with a new, yearning eroticism. This wonderful book collects Neruda’s most passionate verses.
I acknowledge the contribution of my mother and father for their blessings and my careful nurture and of my brothers for their intellectual companionship. I also acknowledge hereditary contribution of my grandfather whom I have never seen but whose stories as “pioneer and the first English Teacher” still prevail as folklore in my hometown. I am grateful to my wife and children for their support in writing. Also I am grateful to ShriRajenderKrishan and Ms AparnaChatterjee from Boloji.com for building my confidence on writing poems and to ShriRamaraoVadapalli for his kind remarks.I acknowledge the contribution of my mother and father for their blessings and my careful nurture and of my brothers for their intellectual companionship. I also acknowledge hereditary contribution of my grandfather whom I have never seen but whose stories as “pioneer and the first English Teacher” still prevail as folklore in my hometown. I am grateful to my wife and children for their support in writing. Also I am grateful to ShriRajenderKrishan and Ms AparnaChatterjee from Boloji.com for building my confidence on writing poems and to ShriRamaraoVadapalli for his kind remarks.
A volume of poetry in which the author confronts God, the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and the bystanders to the genocide in which six million Jews were murdered. Menachem Rosensaft also reflects on other genocides, physical separation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and why Black lives matter, among other themes that inspire the reader to make the ghosts of the past an integral part of their present and future. About the AuthorMenachem Z. Rosensaft is the associate executive vice president and general counsel of the World Jewish Congress and teaches about the law of genocide at Columbia Law School and Cornell Law School. In addition to a law degree from Columbia Law School and a master's degree in modern European history from Columbia University, he received a master's degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. He is the editor of God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2015). ***Through his haunting poems, my friend Menachem Rosensaft transports us into the forbidding universe of the Holocaust. Without pathos and eschewing the maudlin clichés that have become far too commonplace, he conveys with simultaneous sensitivity and bluntness the absolute sense of loss, deep-rooted anger directed at God and at humankind, and often cynical realism. His penetrating words are rooted in the knowledge that much of the world has failed to internalize the lessons of the most far-reaching genocide in history. The son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, Menachem, brings us face to face with his five-and-a-half-year-old brother as he is separated from their mother and murdered in a Birkenau gas chamber. He then allows us to identify with the ghosts of other children who met the same tragic fate. Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen deserves a prominent place in Holocaust literature and belongs in the library of everyone who seeks to connect with what Elie Wiesel called the "kingdom of night." Ronald S. Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress. Ever since he was a college student and in the many decades since Menachem Rosensaft has been raising difficult questions. He has rarely if ever, turned away from a fight when truth and justice were at stake. That same honesty, conviction, and forthrightness are evident in these compelling poems. His passion about the horrors of genocide, prejudice, and hatred leaves the reader unsettled. And that is how it should be. Deborah Lipstadt, Ph.D., Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University. Menachem Rosensaft's luminous poetry confirms that he is not only one of the most fearless chroniclers of our factual, hard history, but also a treasured narrator of our emotional inheritance. Each of his poems is a jewel of economy, memory, and pathos, and each is a crystallized snapshot of the strained times we are living in, as well as the past moments we wish we could unlive. Share this collection with the people you care about. Abigail Pogrebin, author of My Jewish Year 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew
"Jamie K. Reaser is a rare bird, indeed: a mystic naturalist, a gifted poet, and a virtuoso guide to soul. With the Siren song of her seductive verse, this chthonic critter will grab you by the ankles and draw you down toward the ecstatic and terrifying mysteries of the one life you can call your own, your one true gift for this breaking world." --Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., Author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche and Nature and the Human Soul
