Peculiar Honors is a collection of poems about how things appear to be one way, then surprise us by being something else. There is an alternative reality that becomes visible only through the lens of poetry. What seems to be an egg, or a crossing signal, or a child sitting in a shopping cart turns out to be a portal into the unexpected. These poems are about things that seem dire or misconceived-a nephew's death, a detour into the wrong profession-but which are redeemed through reconstruction in poetry. Organized around quotes from Isaac Watts, the poems tackle big questions and small oddities with equal force, starting with Watts' prayer to Let every creature rise and bring/peculiar honors to our King. Each poem is a peculiar honor - a look through the ordinary to those strange, difficult, and triumphant things that poetry reveals.

Peculiar Honors

Literature & Fiction

Cumberland, Sharon

Poetry

Black Heron Press

<p>Found in a Letter 1959 looks like the scrapbook of a U.S. Navy family in the 1950s. The author, Sharon Cumberland, uses a series of her father's letters (written to his father) as the basis for poems that address pertinent issues of the Eisenhower era. In the poems her father's voice roams freely in time, into the past for relevant memories, and into the future to reveal the fate of various family members. The letters describe in intimate and amusing detail the year her father spent as a Sloan Fellow at MIT. Family photos provide images of the characters and places described in the poems and letters.</p>

Found in a Letter 1959: A Memoir in Poems

Literary

Ex Ophidia Press

Strange with Age, by prize-winning poet Sharon Cumberland, explores the gains and losses of the ageing process through the prism of her 95-year-old father, as well as other, wide-ranging subjects concerned with the vagaries and challenges of living. Built around the sonnet cycle "My Father Has Grown Strange with Age," the poems reflect the poet's travels to Rome, Glasgow, Seattle, and San Francisco, and an array of nursing homes, fantasies, and dreams. Cumberland's poems are known for the clarity and accessibility of her voice. They can be understood and appreciated by adolescent and college readers, while mature readers will find a treasure trove of meaning in the clever use of imagery and metaphor. Cumberland is also known for her spirituality in the tradition of Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and Denise Levertov. Her poems explore the mysteries of faith, both in contemporary and biblical settings, without being off-putting to secular readers. Her work is a magic mirror in which the reader can see the extraordinary through the mundanity of daily life. Sandra Cisneros calls Cumberland's poetry "truer than x-ray or photo." Kathleen Flenniken says the Strange with Age offers "truth, consolation, and a lovely sense of humor."

Strange with Age

Self-Help

Relationships

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cumberland, Sharon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cumberland, Sharon