Social Poetry

Ebony and De’Kari (aka Flow) do not get along. How could they when their cafeteria scuffle ended with De'Kari's ruined shoes, Ebony on the ground, and both of them with ten days of at-home suspension? Now Eb and Flow have two weeks to think about and explain their behavior—to their families, to each other, and ultimately to themselves. Single-parent homes, tight funds, and sibling dynamics provide a balancing act for the growing tweens. And whether they realize it or not, these two have a lot more in common than they think.

Now is an extraordinary time. Across the country, people are losing their loved ones, their livelihoods, their homes, and even their own lives to COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, countless protests erupted this summer over the recurring loss of Black lives. Reverberations of shock and outrage remain with us all. There's a Revolution Outside, My Love captures and articulates all of these roiling sentiments unleashed by a profound national reckoning.

Slang, writes Michael Adams, is poetry on the down low, and sometimes lowdown poetry on the down low, but rarely, if ever, merely lowdown. It is the poetry of everyday speech, the people's poetry, and it deserves attention as language playing on the cusp of art. In Slang: The People's Poetry, Adams covers this perennially interesting subject in a serious but highly engaging way, illuminating the fundamental question "What is Slang" and defending slang - and all forms of nonstandard English - as integral parts of the American language.

In a new city, at a new school, 12-year-old Emmy has never felt more out of tune. Things start to look up when she takes her first coding class, unexpectedly connecting with the material - and Abigail, a new friend - through a shared language: music. But when Emmy gets bad news about their computer teacher, and finds out Abigail isn't being entirely honest about their friendship, she feels like her new life is screeching to a halt. Despite these obstacles, Emmy is determined to prove that, for the first time ever, she isn't a wrong note, but a musician in the world's symphony.

Thought Relics, first published in 1921, is a collection of untitled verses that bridge the gap between meditations and prose. Originally written in English by Tagore, these poetic aphorisms are a dreamy blend of mysticism, philosophy, introspection, and spiritual discovery.

Keeping her brother, Benji, warm, fed, and away from their father is Louisa's only goal in life. When the state steps in and places them in separate foster homes, her world falls apart. Louisa, in crisis, discovers slam poetry. The spoken word performances reveal people sharing pieces of themselves on stage for the world to hear. The transparency she sees frightens her but also holds the key to her future...if she's brave enough to give her story a voice.

A dirty, skinny, dog shows up in Sam and Katie's neighborhood. They start to follow it, and they don't like what they see: The Wilson sisters yell at it because it goes in their garden and the Tracy twins chase it on their bikes and throw things at it. Sam and Katie want the dog to know they'll be its friends. They think it should have a name. Most of all, they want it to like them. But then they do something thoughtless, and after that, it's hard to make things right, especially because the dog now won't come near them.

Katrine Marie Guldager er tilbage som lyriker med en samling digte, som handler om at blive til i en anden verden. Flere tider og steder lægger sig ind over hinanden. En nutid med børn, kat og hortensiabed flyder sammen med erindringer om en barndom i Østafrika: Haile Selassies løver, at spise nzima med fingrene, tiden tilbragt alene under bananpalmen, at krydse en flod i en anden tid. Og indimellem bryder en stemme ind, jegets mor, som ofte erindrer tingene noget anderledes.

One part mixtape, one part disorientation guide, and one part career retrospective, Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre's debut looks you directly in the eye and doesn't let you flinch. Ranging from justice to love, community action to personal reflection, A Love Song, a Death Rattle, a Battle Cry is a dedication to craft. Clocking in before the rest of us are even awake, the book wastes no time. It does the work and beckons you to follow. A compilation of poems, lyrics, and essays from the UN presenter, MC, and two-time National Poetry Slam champion....

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. In recent years non-religious funerals have become more common, but without an established canon of texts to fall back on, it can be difficult to plan an appropriate service for a loved one who had no religious belief or connections. Texts recommended by secular humanists, especially modern texts, can sometimes sound trite or overly informal.

At the core of punk attitude is love—yearning for a better world where people can live in harmony and peace, free from suffering. It's the same attitude that Buddhists have, and that's why I'm a Punk Buddhist, and I'm not conflicted at all.

The First Amendment is one of America's greatest blessings, thus this book's poems praise and honor this great amendment.

Poartry: A Collision of Poetry and Art by Douglas Kiburz, MD, is a collection of poetry, essays, eulogies, philosophy, and interpretation of historical events. From Maple Leaf Meadows ranch in the Midwest, Kiburz brings his experience as an orthopedic surgeon, father, son, husband, sculptor, rancher, and poet to bear in the sometimes comical, often dignified, and always thought-provoking collection.

Czeslaw Miosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature, reflects upon poetry's testimony to the events of our tumultuous time. From the special perspectives of "my corner of Europe", a classical and Catholic education, a serious encounter with Marxism, and a life marked by journeys and exiles, Milosz has developed a sensibility at once warm and detached, flooded with specific memory yet never hermetic or provincial. Milosz addresses many of the major problems of contemporary poetry, beginning with the pessimism and negativism prompted by reductionist interpretations of man's animal origins.

After the death of her child, a grief-stricken psychotherapist, teacher, and writer volunteers as a poetry teacher at a residential treatment facility for “delinquent” girls. Here, their mutual support nourishes and enriches each other, though not without large quantities of drama and recalcitrance. Compelling, appealing, poignant, and often hilarious, I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent chronicles the passion that grew for pushing voices out into the world.

A lush tapestry of poetry and prose, Here to Stay is an invitation to engage with a new field of contemporary American poetry. “I cannot separate my work from my undocumented identity.” —Aline Mello From the indomitable writers and activists Janine Joseph, Esther Lin, and Marcelo Hernandez...

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with a stolen gun, threatens his girlfriend, Emily Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after, angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where two quirky fellow students and the spirit of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged self, to find the good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

"My name is Colette. This book is about me. Who am I? To be perfectly honest, I'm not exactly sure who I am. I guess you could say I'm the 15-year-old daughter of an annoyingly famous movie star. Or maybe I'm the 18-year-old daughter of a famous movie star's stand-in. Or maybe I'm the thousand-year-old daughter of a vampire.... Having trouble guessing which one of these stories is true? Join the club. My friends have a joke about me: 'How can you tell if Colette is lying? Her mouth is open.'"

Henry has been deaf from an early age. He's intelligent and aware of language, but by age six, he has decided it's not safe to speak to strangers. When the time comes for him to start school, he is labeled "unteachable." Because his family has very little money, his parents and older sister, Molly, feel powerless to help him. Henry's sent to Riverview, a bleak institution where he is misunderstood, underestimated, and harshly treated. Victor, a conscientious objector to World War II, is part of a Civilian Public Service program and arrives at Riverview to serve as an attendant in 1942.

Consider school days the worst days. Don't consider school a necessary evil because we don't need school. Break free from school. Unschooling is the way out so these poems hopefully will inspire you to unschool yourself and the world.