Social Poetry

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule - until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.

Beauregard has always had big dreams. He wants to travel the world and see all the sites, but how could he possibly go around the globe if he is too scared to fly? With the help of one cardboard box and some amazing new friends, Beauregard goes on the adventure of a lifetime and realizes he is actually pretty brave after all!

We know you shouldn't take your dragon to the library, but what about taking him out to dinner? After all, dragons need to eat, too! But with fiery breath, flapping wings, and pointy spikes, that might not be a good idea! Rhyming text and diverse characters bring the importance of dinner manners to a new level in this charming story.

Have you ever thought about bringing your dragon to the library? Don't do it! You might have the best intentions, but that dragon will cause nothing but trouble. Using rhyming text and a diverse cast of characters, this charming story provides some important - and not so important - library etiquette in a very entertaining way.

Dolores loves collecting words! Come join her on an adventure that celebrates the joy of language. This light-hearted and word-driven story encourages listeners to expand their vocabularies as they follow a charming Dolores on an endearing adventure.

Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette's syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, who is also the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is - an interesting person and a good friend.

In this captivating poetry collection by Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, the power of words becomes a force to reckon with. Through poignant verses written both before and during the COVID-19 global health pandemic, Ali-Coleman weaves a tapestry of emotions that delve into the ongoing struggle for the liberation of Black people in America. This audiobook includes never-before-heard instrumental accompaniment to many of the book's poems, with the author singing on some of the tracks, adding to the theatrical element of some of the pieces.

Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Fall 2024 Poetry Books From Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, a stunning collection of early works written from 1921-1927 and curated by award winning poet and National Book Award finalist, Danez Smith. Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became...

At the age of 17, after a childhood in an fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. Here Sissay recounts his life story. It is a story of neglect and determination. Misfortune and hope. Cruelty and triumph.

In this special recording, we travel with Dr. Gerald G. Jampolsky and Dr. Diane Cirincione into the most intimate of their internal journeys. We move with Jerry from militant atheism through an awakening by direct experience with the Divine. Detailed accounts of his spiritual transformation are chronicled through his never-before-seen poetry and notes to himself from the early years when the unpublished manuscript of A Course in Miracles was placed in his hands and, in that moment of Divine Grace, his life changed forever.

This amazing collection of poetry from the famous Greek Anthology spans over 1,500 years of ancient Greek and Byzantine history. The selections in this recording were chosen and translated by famed classicist J. W. Mackail.

As we open up to life and love and each other, as we awaken from our dream of separation, we encounter not just the bliss of existence, but its pain, too; not only life's ecstasy, but also its agony. Healing doesn't always feel good or comfortable or even "spiritual", for we are inevitably forced to confront our shadows, fears, and deepest longings - those secret parts of ourselves that we have denied, repressed, or deemed "negative" and unworthy of our love.

The Nature of Things was written in the 1st century BC by Roman polymath Lucretius. It is written as a didactic poem, and explains Epicurean physics.

Award-winning travel writer Nicholas Jubber journeys across Europe exploring Europe's epic poems, from the Odyssey to Beowulf, the Song of Roland to the Nibelungenlied, and their impact on European identity in these turbulent times. These are the stories that made Europe. Journeying from Turkey to Iceland, award-winning travel writer Nicholas Jubber takes us on a fascinating adventure through our continent's most enduring epic poems to learn how they were shaped by their times and how they have since shaped us.

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.

A Financial Times Music Book of the Year 2023 'Key to understanding black British history' - Sunday Times 'Sharp and still relevant' - Zadie Smith Recognized as one of the great poets of modern times, and as a deeply respected and influential political and cultural activist and social critic...

For the past decade, Lemn Sissay has composed a short poem as dawn breaks each morning. Life-affirming, witty and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the dark and are fuelled by resilience and defiant joy. Let the Light Pour In is a collection of the best of these poems, and a book celebrating this morning practice.

This cheerful book full of informative narrative poems takes the listener through ancient pagan traditions that inspired the celebration as we know it today. From the Roman Saturnalia to Norse Yule, from Persian god Mithras to Jesus Christ, there are fables, symbols and lessons to learn that the book eloquently relays. Christmas tree, christingle, mistletoe, Santa Claus, mince pie, stockings, angels, wreaths, turkey—all come to life in fun trivia stories.

This collection, first published in 1914, contains 28 short pieces in prose and verse, which present themes frequently explored in Gibran's other works. These include love, death, creation myths and spiritual realization.

Richard Burton reads Shakespeare's narrative poem about the legendary Lucretia (or 'Lucrece'). The poem tells the story of the Roman leader Tarquin's rape of Lucrece and her subsequent suicide.