Poetry. A testament to the stunning variety of the human experience, this timely anthology reminds us of the singular importance of poetry to our lives and our souls. The influence of Horace, Keats, and Neruda is deeply evident in the lyric beauty of these poems, but more than a few defy conventions and challenge the form itself in an exciting expansion of boundaries. Selected for their language, their imagery, their honesty, and their insight, this gathering of 101 poems by 95 poets is a fresh sampling of memorable new odes in the English language. Contributors include Kim Addonizio, David Baker, Christopher Buckley, Elena Karina Byrne, Kelly Cherry, Carl Dennis, Denise Duhamel, Martin Espada, Richard Jackson, Thomas Lux, Naomi Shihab Nye, Stanley Plumly, William Pitt Root, Pamela Uschuk, Jane Shore, Gerald Stern, Diane Wakoski, Gary Young, and many more.

Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

C&R Press

Poetry. Asian American Studies. Winner of the 2008 DeNovo Poetry Prize. "Jason Koo's MAN ON EXTREMELY SMALL ISLAND is an absurdly funny meditation on loneliness, desire and the silences between us. By turns mythic and pop, Koo's poems explore the anger, betrayal and compromises of young love, as well as the complexities of communication within families. MAN ON EXTREMELY SMALL ISLAND is a self-effacing look at anguish, an expansive and inclusive debut"—Denise Duhamel.

Man on Extremely Small Island

Koo, Jason

Poetry. "In THE TUMBLING BOX, Allison Funk offers us an exquisite accomplishment: elegant, subtle poems that confront the painful and complex enormity we call love, in particular, parental love. In spite of the best of intentions, in giving birth, we give birth not only to love but to suffering; born, we are borne not only toward love but toward suffering. Rigorously and scrupulously crafted, these lyrics move us with their hard-won wisdom, awe us with their persistent lucidity, and redeem us with their enduring grace"--Eric Pankey.

The Tumbling Box

Funk, Allison

Poetry. African American Studies. Stacey Lynn Brown's voice contains multitudes, yet paradoxically sings a single "song" in this collection of southern-tinged monologues. C&amp;R is honored to publish Brown's well-crafted, powerful and moving book, which was recently reviewed by Jenny Mueller in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cradle Song

Brown, Stacey Lynn

Poetry. "The poems in Alexander Long's LIGHT HERE, LIGHT THERE offer no bromides, no easy consolations. His new book is a product of 'the grieving mind in memory,' and Long seems to have forgotten nothing. The misery of a failed marriage, a friend's suicide, and the casual ruin of other wasted lives are cataloged with a ruthless precision. But 'every apocalypse is personal,' Long assures us, and because it is, we readers experience the same redemption that Long somehow manages to coax out of the relentless assault of the past. Alexander Long's poems are superbly lyrical, agile and flamboyant. His description of Jimi Hendrix in one of his poems is an apt description of Long as well: 'wicked and bright and on'"--Gary Young.

Light Here, Light There

Long, Alexander

The Recumbent Galaxy

Cardona-Hine, Alvaro

Kalamaras, George

Poetry. "Travis Denton's THE BURDEN OF SPEECH is an astonishing debut collection by a poet both accessible and original, funny and dead serious. It's very hard to make poetry seem like a man talking intensely to you across a table. Denton can do this and much, much more. Take this book everywhere with you!"--Thomas Lux. "In the world described here, each of us is at least two people, like the man who's pretty sure he murdered someone, only he can't remember who. Smart, rueful, and lashed together with a wit that cuts like piano wire, these poems say that speech is a burden, sure, but that's only because there's so much to say. We're lucky to have Travis Wayne Denton do the talking for us"--David Kirby.

The Burden of Speech

Denton, Travis Wayne

Poetry. "In Lesley Wheeler's exquisite debut collection, HEATHEN, the otherworldly flit among the actual like imaginary chameleons in real gardens. The dwarves of Eden think it's a stable and refuse to touch the wine: 'Gah,' they cry, 'it's dung' ('Religious Education'). Marianne Moore, hired to teach typing at the Carlisle Indian School, feels 'false as a New World chameleon' and sows 'sedition' in the Business Department until it's closed down ('A Place for the Genuine'). And in the wondrously rhymed quatrains of the title poem, a son fits his ear to his mother's 'so that the god in your head can talk / to the god in mine. I hear a forest / creak like the binding of a book' ('Heathen'). Wheeler strikes an impossible balance between the wildly witty and tenderly elegant detail. Heathen is sheer magic"--Cynthia Hogue.

Heathen

Wheeler, Lesley

Poetry. NOTES TO THE BELOVED is full of the physical world, illuminated by a dynamic narrative sensibility, a vision of down-to-earth love, an active yearning to understand the world, and plenty of kick-ass images, metaphors, and similes: "You make a matchstick of your finger, / dunk the tip in Bombshell Red. / Then your lips are two flickers, / in the shadows of your ears, smoldering / flowers. You draw a smoky line / between lid and lash and dash out."

Notes to the Beloved

Bitting, Michelle

Poetry. "Rarely has a book of poems been as aptly titled as Barbara Crooker's MORE. Propelled by her hunger for beauty and language, she flies in low over human experience, noticing every gesture, every flavor, every nuance of color and light. Whether she is pondering a spill of salt or stepping into a painting by Hopper, Crooker never for one second lets us forget what it is to be alive and how many ways we have been given to express our gratitude for this simple fact. 'How did all this loveliness / spring from the dark?' she asks in one poem. I don't know the answer, but by the timeI finished reading this book, I could only agree with its final sentence: 'I want all this to last'"--Sue Ellen Thompson

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Crooker, Barbara

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