English Poetry

The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the 14th century, is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.

When he graduated from Columbia in 1958, John Giorno was handsome, charismatic, ambitious, and eager to soak up as much of Manhattan's art and culture as possible. Poetry didn't pay the bills, so he worked on Wall Street, spending his nights at the happenings, underground movie premiers, art shows, and poetry readings that brought the city to life. An intense romantic relationship with Andy Warhol - not yet the global superstar he would soon become - exposed Giorno to even more of the downtown scene, but after starring in Warhol's first movie, Sleep, they drifted apart.

This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family.

Timothy is on probation. It's a strange word - something that happens to other kids, to delinquents, not to kids like him. And yet, he is under house arrest for the next year. He must check in weekly with a probation officer and a therapist and keep a journal for an entire year. And mostly, he has to stay out of trouble. But when he must take drastic measures to help his struggling family, staying out of trouble proves more difficult than Timothy ever thought it would be.

The Narrow Road to the Interior and Hojoki are two of the best-loved works of their kind; famous for their beautiful, delicate verse and subtle insight into the human condition. It has been said of The Narrow Road that 'it was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it'. It takes the form of a travel diary, and traces the poet's journey from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to the northern interior.

From the author of "Journey Beyond the Veil: Awakening the Heart to Love" comes her next memoir in verse – "After the Journey: Returning the Heart to Home." Through her poems and prose, experience her heartful transition back from a spiritual journey to her home place – her return to a mundane world of daily human drama and existential crises.

Thirty years ago, tribal college educator and poet Thomas Davis began writing poems about the tribal college movement, beginning with the founding of College of Menominee Nation in Northern Wisconsin. He had no intention of developing a book out of the poems, using napkins and scraps of papers to create a mostly free verse poetry that chronicled the events and people trying to build a new kind of educational system that would preserve and evolve Indigenous language, history, and culture. Davis gave these poems away and many were lost. Until now.

Shadows of Me is a poignant mix of prose and poetry that delves deep into the raw realities of addiction. It is a journey that navigates through the labyrinth of despair, desperation, and heartbreak, painting a vivid picture of the relentless battle against the destructive force of addiction. The author, having lived through the harrowing experience, offers a unique perspective. The narrative is not just a story, but a shared experience, a common thread that pierces through every life affected by addiction.

An author and educator’s pioneering approach to helping autistic students find their voices through poetry—a powerful and uplifting story that shows us how to better communicate with people on the spectrum and explores how we use language to express our seemingly limitless interior lives...

In collaboration with the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), Audible is illustrating the power of the spoken word with Power in Poetry: Moods That Move. Five spoken word artists created unique pieces of poetry connected by the mood themes of the 2021 FOLD and rooted in the oral traditions of African, Indigenous, and other communities. Their poems serve as an anthem to not just the festival but to the power of diverse voices.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay Nature.

In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya, from a strongly feminist perspective. A verse narrative, blending folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory, The Perfect Nine chronicles the efforts the Gĩkũyũ founders make to find partners for their ten beautiful daughters - called “The Perfect Nine” - and the challenges they set for the 99 suitors who seek their hands in marriage. The epic has all the elements of adventure, with suspense, danger, humor, and sacrifice.

Nature Poem follows Teebs - a young, queer, American Indian (or NDN) poet - who can't bring himself to write a nature poem. For the reservation-born, urban-dwelling hipster, the exercise feels stereotypical, reductive, and boring. He hates nature. He prefers city lights to the night sky. He'd slap a tree across the face. He'd rather write a mountain of hashtag punchlines about death and give head in a pizza-parlor bathroom; he'd rather write odes to Aretha Franklin and Hole.

Starseed is a channeled poetry book about the global starseed awakening happening at this time. This poetry book is for those who are ready to connect to their galactic lineage, and our place among the stars. This channeled poetry book was inspired by all the star brothers and sisters working to elevate the consciousness of the planet. If you’re a starseed going through a massive spiritual awakening, allow Starseed Awaken The World to help you step into your purpose and power, to awaken yourself and others!

Under the order of King Pelias, Jason embarks on a perilous journey to steal the Golden Fleece from the Land of Colchis. Far from heroic, Jason is the typical everyman. Often compared with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts is the only surviving poem from the Hellenistic period and was hugely influential on later literature, especially the Roman poetry of Virgil and Ovid.

The Argonautica, also known as Jason and the Golden Fleece or Jason and the Argonauts, is the only surviving epic poem from Hellenistic Greece. It is a masterpiece whose story was well known to the audiences of the time. Virgil and other later poets were greatly influenced by it. Its author, Apollonius, was a well-known third century BC scholar living in Alexandria during the great age of Ptolomaic scholarship, and his bold attempt at writing a Homeric epic about Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece faced a daunting audience of knowledgeable contemporaries.

Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Rupi Kaur, this heartrending story told in prose and poetry weaves together the stories of a mother and daughter’s lives. In this stunning sophomore novel, acclaimed writer Jasmin Kaur explores trauma, fear, courage, community, and the healing power of...

Civil marriage ceremonies are increasingly popular, but it can be difficult to choose readings which are appropriate in a non-religious setting. A few well-known poems tend to appear regularly at civil ceremonies, but if you are looking for something different, this book could be the answer. Non-Religious Wedding Readings contains a selection of 77 poems and prose passages on love and marriage from various writers dating from the 17th to the 20th century.

Are you ready to view motherhood and raising kids in a new light? For My Daughter is a recklessly honest debut poetry collection that embraces the free-spirit of wild women everywhere. Open this audiobook and be inspired by a fresh way of mothering, one that owes nothing to the world and everything to the children. Let go of outdated beliefs about who and what mothers and daughters should be and embrace everything you want. You can do it your way. The poems in this audiobook prove it.

Wordsworth's The Prelude is the consummation of his achievement as the great founder of English romanticism. An autobiography in verse, it tells of his childhood in the Lake District, his student days in Cambridge, his passion for the French Revolution and his later disenchantment with it. It also tells of his personal journey to a belief in Nature as the great moral and spiritual force which shapes human life, but on which human society all too often turns its back.