Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. Translated from the German by Michael Eskin. This extraordinary book offers a dazzling personal poetics as well as a sustained engagement with the origins of poetry itself. In tracing an arc from the landfills and forests of an East German childhood to the "global air-space of poetry," it takes in a breathtaking poetic itinerary from the Classics to the present day. Emerging from the heart of the European tradition, every page is packed with insight, wit and linguistic surprises, superbly rendered in Michael Eskin's supple English. But more than that: this is a volume with a mission. In reckoning with the possibilities of poetry, it sets out to show us a better way of being in the world: "a guide to thinking and feeling with precision." Written by one of the most exciting and thought-provoking writers of the moment, THE VOCATION OF POETRY is essential reading for anyone interested in modern poetry or in modern life.

Wanneer die son verduister, staan mense stil om na te dink oor lig en donker. So word daar oor veel meer as hierdie natuurlike verskynsel besin. Sinisme en humor bly nie agterwee nie maar die groot gedagte skyn weemoed en verwondering te wees. In hierdie 94 gedigte praat bekende digters en debutante saam; prosaskrywers, joernaliste, musikante en ander openbare figure waag hulle hand aan die poesie. Die resultaat is ’n sonderlinge verkenning van die kreatiewe kragte wat vaardig raak wanneer die natuur sy heerskappy bevestig.

In this new volume, Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Simic fills the wee hours of his poetry with angels and pigs, riddles and cemeteries. With empty offices and dolls that smile. With the sound of bare feet upstairs and a single kiss before the shadows converge. His is a rich, haunted world of East European memory and American present. It is a world of his own creation, one always full of luminous surprise.

Poetry and prose to encourage us to grow. Watering the Soul is a timeless reminder that everyone needs time, love, and forgiveness. In the deepest, most enchanting part of the forest, a creature hands you a seed. Within the seed is your soul, ready to be grown again. From internationally bestselling author Courtney Peppernell comes her new book of poetry and prose, Watering the Soul. In true Peppernell style, the book is divided into sections, this time following a step-by-step recipe, to heal your soul. Filled with themes that focus on forgiveness, gratitude, togetherness, and equality, Peppernell takes you on a journey to find a precious yet profound understanding; that a seed is not grown with haste and nor is becoming whole, that in each and every step, we find the meaning of watering the soul. This is the story of your soul and how it can be grown again.

Who is responsible for creating a smokescreen of misdirection and illusion, over our lives, so that we are unable to see things as they really are? A selection of poems reflecting life's spiritual beauty, the truly bizarre and the totally bonkers!

In hierdie stewige debuut, skryf Lucie Möller oor ’n wye verskeidenheid onderwerpe.

Benewens verse oor vuur as suiwering en vernietiging, kuns, musiek en letterkunde, speel ’n groot aantal van die verse af teen die agtergrond van die herkenbare landskappe van Namibië, die Noord-Kaap en veral die bosveld van die Waterberge.

Möller gee konkrete gestalte aan die natuurlike elemente van dié landskappe, die plante, diere en voëls, maar ook die berge en riviere.

Leonora Slinn was born in Stafford and is proud to be part of such a delightful and historic county. She has been writing poetry from the age of seven and is pleased to be able to share her memories with you.

Out for Air is the exhilarating first collection by former professional skateboarder Olly Todd. Infused with movement, surprise and play, Out for Air presents a unique vision of the built environment, celebrating places where 'the bridges are endless / beyond the cantilever / of reality'. Each poem is its own event: expansive in scope but intricate in form, a masterclass in precision engineering. Todd rewires T. S. Eliot's Waste Land in his strange, compelling descriptions of the modern city: melting asphalt; a U-turning taxi; a diner swallowed by a sinkhole. In this disorientating landscape the skateboarder-poet is genius loci, the spirit of the place. From Manhattan's 'silky streets' and the Pacific Coast Highway to inner-city London and his native Cumbria, together these poems record a life lived on the move, in motion, on the cusp of things. 'I'm dazzled by this wonderful debut. Todd writes with a tangible physicality, solid as a curb, so that the language itself crunches, glides, grinds. A radically different way of experiencing the built and natural environment and an endlessly engaging, witty, serious and astute new voice.' LUKE KENNARD

A collection of adult humour and life reflecting poems from a first time author. Not suitable reading for children, or adults easily upset or embarrassed by matters of the world and body.

A collection of poems for adults and children.

A collection of poetry

Hughes' relationship with nature is so central to his work that every book on him has discussed it. However, because of the larger scope of all these books, this discussion has remained at a fairly superficial level. Here Keith Sagar tries to take it onto a deeper level by relating it to paganism and Christianity, myth, Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, and the whole tradition of nature poetry in English, to Hughes' particular canon of revered poets, to his wider reading and the shaping events of his life. He traces Hughes' painful journey from terror in the face of nature in his first three collections, through the transitional works from Crow to Cave Birds, to the transformation in Moortown and Remains of Elmet, culminating in the exultation of River. He argues that these three collections constitute the apex of Hughes' achievement, and are among the great works of world literature.

This is a collection of poetry, written by Simon Stratton.

The Wanderer's Havamal features Jackson Crawford's complete, carefully revised English translation of the Old Norse poem Havamal , newly annotated for this volume, together with facing original Old Norse text sourced directly from the Codex Regius manuscript. Rounding out the volume are Crawford's classic Cowboy Havamal and translations of other related texts central to understanding the character, wisdom, and mysteries of odinn (Odin). Portable and reader-friendly, it makes an ideal companion for both lovers of Old Norse mythology and those new to the wisdom of this central Eddic poem wherever they may find themselves.

The poems in this book focus on different aspects of the self, influenced by culture, art, politics and language. There are poems that examine the relationship between the artist and art: a Michelangelo sculpture describes its maker, Frida Khalo faces her image in one of her canvases. The political self is evident in poems about the Berlin wall and its eventual destruction and the impact of death by sniper bullet in Sarajevo. The relationship between language and culture is another theme developed in the book: a famous American poet looks back over his life, a teacher struggles to enthuse his class with a poem. Overall then, the poems examine the inner life of the individual, the impact of cause and effect on the psyche and how we often have to struggle to achieve happiness. John Murphy was born in Kingston-on-Thames and after years of living in various parts of London and Essex is now back in the family home. He entered Essex University as a mature student, discovered he was quite good at it and eventually emerged with a PhD in American poetry. He has lectured in English and American literature and Creative writing and now in semi-retirement, enjoys teaching bass guitar and playing bass in JJ and The Jukes.

One of the most admired American poets of his generation, James Wright (1927-80) wrote contemplative, sturdy, and generous poems with an honesty, clarity, and stylistic range matched by very few--then or now. From his Deep Image-inspired lyrics to his Whtimanesque renderings of Neruda, Vallejo, and other Latin American poets, and from his heartfelt reflections on life, love, and loss in his native Ohio to the celebrated prose poems (set frequently in Italy) that marked the end of his important career, Above the River gathers the complete work of a modern master. It also features a moving and insightful introduction by Donald Hall, Wright's longtime friend and colleague.

Evoking childhood memories and lifelong relationships with humour, poignancy, and preternatural clarity, What Possessed Me also explores the natural world and landscapes in various parts of England, Wales, France, and Greece. Another theme is the work of teaching and other professions seen from the vantage points of provider, recipient, and witness. There are salutes to writers like Edward Thomas, Dannie Abse and Jack Gilbert who, we are told, 'put his life into poetry.' Separate sequences celebrate years of occasional visits to Llandaff Cathedral and its surrounding landscape, and the delights and political revelations of a stay in Athens. This is a book diverse in its moods and subjects but unified by an infectious openness to the moment and to life's joys and sorrows, and an unfolding sense of accumulating experience and insight. It is illuminated by a recurrent sense of inspiration, of 'what possessed me.'

Uittogboek – ’n bundel wat van fyn vakmanskap, tematiese en stilistiese verskeidenheid en intellektuele diepgang getuig – is ’n hoogtepunt in die digter Johan Myburg se oeuvre. Temas soos die doodsbesef, die mens se verganklikheid en die optekening van laaste dinge word op subtiele en sensitiewe wyse benader en met ironie en humor deurspek. Die samebindende gegewe van die bundel is die Romeinse keiser Hadrianus (76–138 n.C.), en die bundel open met sy bekende sterfgedig in Latyn en Myburg se trefsekere vertaling daarvan in Afrikaans. Myburg bewys homself met hierdie publikasie as ’n digter wat nie slegs formele verse nie, maar ook vrye verse en langer prosagedigte kan skryf wat die leser op verskeie vlakke uitdaag, gevange hou en betower.

'Superb, moving, beautiful' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep He will be allowed to visit his mother soon. His mother who is terminally ill, his mother who he has been barred from seeing as he recovers from his own bout of pneumonia. Until then, with the help of his physiotherapist Freya, he must navigate his increasingly empty and isolated existence: his father, who finds solace in the bottom of a glass; his Nana Q, whose betting-slip confetti litters her handbag; his friends, who simply wouldn't understand. Time passes with the promise of soon, but one hundred and fifty-two days later the boy will come face to face with his grief, and move beyond to a world full of possibility, hope and love.

An extraordinarily successful collaboration between the Irish poet, Paul Muldoon and the acclaimed Scottish photographer, Norman McBeath, in which there's an uncanny relationship between word and black-and-white image. Although a McBeath photograph (of a statue of Apollo wrapped in polythene) is directly invoked in one poem, much of the success of this beautifully produced book has to do with indirection and evocation. It's as if this book presents us with a distinctly new genre - photometry.