Poetry Books

Sue Holt's poetry is truly inspirational. She shows how faith can overcome great difficulties, and that no matter what, survival is possible. Everyone will find strength in her poems.

Holt submerges her life experiences of manic depression within her deeply moving and inspirational poetry. Her language is dark and grabbing and she is a highly skilled poet at evoking pathos. This is my favorite book of poetry and I recommend it to anyone.

Sue Holt's book gathers dozens of vibrant poems. She has that gift which only great writers possess, that makes you very concerned about what she's talking about _in this case, mental illness_
A very emotional journey...

"Snot and Tears"

Sue Holt's portrayal of Jesus Christ is courageous to say the least. Sue admits to feeling no repentance to not describing Jesus' love through reverent verses in " Poems of Survival". Sue describes her encounters with God through "snot and tears", and makes no apology for the offence this may cause others, for Sue this was the reality surrounding her conversion to knowing the living God.
Sue knows that Jesus was with her in situations, which many may shy away from. To her Jesus is not the "untouchable" God often portrayed; He is her rock and deserves to be acknowledged through her painful choice of words. Sue knows you may find her reality uncomfortable, but her greatest wish is that you will discover the reality of God's love shining through her honesty.

Dark and uplifting poetry concentrating on manic depression, abuse, love, pity, bewilderment and love. Holt's Poetry gives you a frisson and puts a tear to your eye. Christianity gives her the faith to bounce back and rejoin life. Although it must be said that the writing process itself seems to have made a magic wand for us the reader as well.

I bought this book along with the 'Hours of Youth.' I really liked both collections and very similar to the second volume of work, I found the poetry in the first book to be a rich display of passion & intimacy and a deliverance of sheer literary music. Well worth the money spent.

Arman,

C'est Viktoriya. Je suis a Chicago et je cherche de toi, je voudrais te voir et parler avec toi.
J'attendrai ton lettre ou ton appel.

Et pour le "review", tu deja connais que j'adore ta poesie :)

A pretty decent book. I liked the first half more than the second half. I thought that the love poems were too cheesy and kinda read all the same. But still I would recommend it for the good ones that it contains.

An excellent collection with much character to it. I enjoyed the love poems quite a bit, though not all of them are as powerful in emotive strength as the others. But still this does not detract from the overall excellent style of the book.

This book is not like any particular current style that I have come across but still it reads with a modern voice almost dare I say, with a timeless voice, a transcending narrative of an age. I am not sure what to make of the book on the whole, but I liked many of the poems, especially the love poems a lot. I am not surprised that others liked them too.

I enjoyed every minute of this book. The poems are wonderful. I recommend this book to everyone. I acn't wait for more books from this author.

This book of poems are true snowflakes. Each and every one of them paint a picture that make our silent thoughts come to vision and insirational feelings. All the emotions we hold back in every day life flow from our hearts and eyes when read. This is a true treasure and I will cherish this book the rest of my life. It has hope, love, and light at the end of each tunnel.

This book touched my life in so many ways. I hope this writer has plans of another book or two. The words just melt your heart and help heal past ill feelings about life in general. He makes it so easy to see life in a BEAUTIFUL light. You'll Love this
book. His tribute to 9-11 was wonderful.

This book is MUCH more than I expected.. It is a TRUE TREASURE.
I loved it so much I have purchased 4 more for gifts to my dearest freinds. I know they will treasure this beautiful book of dreams, feelings, pictures that come from the words are so clear and just splended... This is a keeper on my coffee table for years to come. I want all of my visitors to enjoy such love and beauty.

Just BEAUTIFUL is the sum of the book. It allowed me to see life in a diffrent light and laught me to LOVE again. This is a MUST
for everyone I know. Well worth the money.

Phillip L. Woodall reaches and caresses the heart of the Vietnam veteran. His poetry pays vivid tribute to the great service, sacrifice and continuing wounds that grunts of that war bear. Having never been one for poetry for its own sake, I am surprised to discover that through Woodall's makes me relive the experiences, complete with sound and smell of war in the jungle, which is a much more powerful than memories. I'm honored to endorse this fine little volume.

Phillip L. Woodall reaches and caresses the heart of the Vietnam veteran. His poetry pays vivid tribute to the great service, sacrifice and continuing wounds that grunts of that war bear. Having never been one for poetry for its own sake, I am surprised to discover that through Woodall's makes me relive the experiences, complete with sound and smell of war in the jungle, which is a much more powerful than memories. I'm honored to endorse this fine little volume.

Although I don't usually read poetry, I was surprised when I opened this book and found it difficult to close. I have read a number of war stories, many of which were about Vietnam, the people who were there and their accounts of specific events that took place. Some of them tell very emotional stories of loss, sacrifice and friendship. But not until now have I read words that truly reveal the emotions that had merely been described in the past. Instead of showing events through the eyes of a soldier, Phil Woodall's verse allows the reader to feel a moment in time with the emotions of a human being trying very hard to comprehend what is happening to him and the people around him. As such, it is much less a book of poems about wars fought by soldiers on far away battlefields, and more about the battle that rages within the souls of those who fought them, and are still fighting them long after.

Rhymer In The Sunset is making me like poetry. I dislike poetry when it seems to ramble in search of rhyme, often at the expense of any sense of logic. My military mind likes order, discipline and symmetry. The author of Rhymer drew me into his head. His thoughts are those of a person during a lull in the battle. One lies there, waits, and his mind races. It took me back to Vietnam, jungle firefights, minutes of terror and hours of tedium. It is a great read.

I met the author of this book in 1965. He and I have been friends for over 35 years. When I met him, he was the highschool football team quarterback, basketball star, track star, and actually a pretty good student. I never never knew about his poetry writing until the year 2000. I could not read the whole book without crying from his sensitivity and descriptive choice of words to describe where he was and why he was there. Here are the words that a soldier wrote, here are the words of the son of a preacher, here are the words of a man that was willing to give the ulitmate sacrifice for the rest of us, and here are the words of someone we can never appreciate enough, because Phillip Woodall is writing the story of every soldier, son, and friend.

American playwrights aren't good at creating a career of playwriting. Why, I can't say. They write dynamically for a given period and then off they go into putting the holy bible on stage or some such epic. They become mystics, like Allen Ginsberg. Shepard wrote plays for a while and then, I think, Hollywood put the zap on him and he was gone. His occasional pieces today are weak imitations of his former self. Money and fame may be responsible. Who knows? Here gathered in a single anthology are the key works, on which his life's reputation rests. "True West" sets the stage: we have real dramatic conflict, exciting dialog (of the sort last heard in Albee's "Zoo Story"), and high theatricality. The rest of the anthology is well worth reading, but for my money Shepard wrote a fine short play but his long and longer pieces are less interesting. Shepard has said in interviews that he sees plays as an outlet for ideas. The problem as I see it is that he has none.

I like to call this collection Best of Shepard Vol. 1. This collection belongs in any actors collection. Sam Shepard is a true, unique American voice. His eccentric characters, sparse writing and classic plays. I've seen "Buried Child" on-Broadway and scenes from "Buried Child", "Curse of the Starving Class", "Savage Love" and "True West" in countless acting classes. One of America's greatest writers.

This collection of plays is extraordinary. Shepard threads tales of cartoonlike characters bound by the direst of circumstances excellently.

The basic text of the most exciting playwright of recent decades. The place to start when discovering the American drama as reader, actor, or teacher!

11th grade English Essay
Phillips Academy, Andover

"True West"

The play is about the struggle between modern society and more traditional ways of life. Lee and Austin represent two disconnected brothers with drastically different upbringings who have come to accept different norms. Against the growth of the city and the suburb, their spirit of the Wild West, though diminished, still exists. They steal and fight just like cowboys and highway robbers. Yet, both Lee and Austin are scared and frustrated. Lee doesn't know if he should try to blend into the new ways, and Austin doesn't know if he should go back to the old ways. And this play about two writers writing about the West is in itself a Western story. It has all the excitement and violence of a rider's life.

Who else would steal a dozen toasters and TVs? Austin and Lee were lawless and wild, daring enough to do anything. Austin's car is like a horse, and driving out is like going for a raid. "Lee enters abruptly into kitchen carrying a stolen TV set." The sentence has such an air of ease as if Lee entered with a Shopping bag. Stealing is no more than a normal part of Lee's life. He lives off of it, like those high-way riders who plunder by-passers in the old days. The wholesale raid of the toasters shows the wilder side of Austin." It was toasters you challenged me to. Only toasters. I ignored other temptation." He says to Lee after the thievery. These words make Austin sound like a warrior who has just beaten his rival in some major battle. The only irony is that the major battle was about stealing a dozen toasters. Austin is bragging about his lawlessness, and that is a very cowboy thing to do. Not only are these brothers such "professional" thief, they also are more than violent. From Lee "ax-chops(ing) at the typewriter using a nine-iron" to Austin trying to choke his brother with a telephone cord while their mom is standing on the side. It is hard to get worse than that. It is like a misplaced scene from a Old Western movie. Not only do these pair of thief like to kill each other, they also have that independence and individualism that Western heroic images render so forcefully. On top of living on the desert by himself, Lee also says "I don't sleep." , and does not seem to eat breakfast. "Do you Eat Breakfast?" "Look, don't worry about me pal. I can take care of myself." When Austin asks him if he needs any help with money, "Lee suddenly lungs at Austin, grabs him violently by the shirt and shakes him with tremendous power." Lee wants money, but he is going to get it by himself, not through his little brother. Lawless, violent, and independent, Lee and Austin are depicted in the play as the "True Western Heroes" borne at a wrong time. This, however, is only the first layer of the play. It makes the story entertaining, but not meaningful.

"Yappin' their fool heads off. They don't yap like that on the desert. They howl. These are city coyotes here." The deeper meaning of the play is about the difference between the city "coyotes" and the country "coyotes". The country "coyote", Lee, is older, lives on a desert, use to catch snakes, and uneducated. The city "coyote", Austin, is younger, writes screen plays, does not remember having ever caught snakes, and has an Ivy League education. The brothers grew up together, but went onto totally different paths of life. But they don't merely represent two disgruntled brothers, but the struggle between the different ways of life. In Austin's eyes, the place where they used to live is "built up", but in Lee's eyes, the place has been "wiped out". But the struggle is not that simple. At the same time of feeling deep nostalgia, and refusing to adapt to the new way with help from his brother, because "it is too cold up there." , Lee also says the new houses that he saw were "like a paradise" with "Blonde people movin' in and outa' the rooms." Lee is deeply rooted in the old way of life and very unprepared socially and mentally for anything other than roaming around and stealing things. He likes comfort like anyone else, but the life of those living in those houses is like "paradise". They are far and aloft, and are not in his reach. Lee wants to write something to change his life, and Austin tells him that he can really turn things around and buy a ranch. Lee's excitement was obvious, " (laughs) A ranch? I could get a ranch?" We can see that it is very clear that even when Lee tries to change, he is only trying to change back to the old ways. Austin at the end of the play suddenly made a deal with Lee asking his brother to bring him to the desert. This shows the conflict at the other end of spectrum. Austin has more money, and has a seemingly good life. But is he really happy? Is his frustration with life any less than Lee's? No. The society that he has so well adapted to is of little comfort to him. He tries for years to get a screenplay to production, but at the whim of an executive, the deal goes to his brother. Austin is frustrated, and though he types betters, suffers as much. Lee asks Austin "maybe we're too intelligent..... One of us has even got a Ivy League Diploma. Now that means somethin' don't it?" But no, it doesn't mean as much as it seems.

The truth is, the old West as it was disappeared long ago. It is no longer filled with rugged mountains, uncharted rivers, cowboy hats, and one does not have the freedom to roam around for thousands of miles with only wild animals as his companion anymore. The untamed natural world went away a hundred years ago with the railroads, and has been changing even more ever since. It is sad to see the past go by for those who grew up as a part of it. Faced with new situations, some of these people try to adapt, some have no chance to adapt, and some don't even want to adapt. And for those who have adapted, they wonder if the decision to change in the first place was valid after all. They wonder if they should go back. That poor Lee had no chance to adapt. He was left out by progresses, and envies dearly the seemingly much more comfortable life that others have. Austin at the same time is in the mainstream of modern life, but he is just as troubled and depressed by commercialism. However, within all these confusions and fightings, all these differences and changes, there is something that has always stayed the same, and that is the true spirit of the West, the "True West". The motivation for people to go to the West in the first place is also the motivation that made the world more modernized. The struggles that the first settlers of the West faced were no different from the struggles that people now face as they move into new ways of life. That spirit is not limited to time nor place, it is about the fundamental human eagerness for new and for more, and at the same time, the unquenchable ties to the past.

...even if you're not a middle-aged Jewish hip, sexy mom who works in entertainment and knows the author and also has a big, crazy 'meshpucha!' Go ahead. Read. Enjoy. Eat.

prjayne

This is a good book to pick up and enjoy.

This was such a fun review of insider, contemporary politics - even though we all know there are trials and tribulations in the political arena, Iris offers such a refreshing insider review of what it takes to be a true "Schlepper". My entire family has read this book and loved it. My new motto is "Have you read my resume?" I plan to use it in a meetng or two in months to come.
She meets the challenges with the chutzpah I only wish I had! Thanks for the enjoyable read. BTW, read this while on a cruise to Alaska and shared your tales with many folks we met. Wish you could have been there.

Schlepper is a smart, sassy look behind the scenes of presidential politics. I always wondered what went on in those smoke filled rooms. Now I know.

Prepare for the campaign season -- read Schlepper.

This is a book about the people in Presidential camapigns and what they go through. What Iris Burnett doesn't know about campaign politics isn't worth knowing. And, yet, she sees the humanity of it all. And still she loves it for what can be accomplished to help ordinary people. She made me laugh out of sheer recognition of the truth. Buy this book today. You will be hooked by the end of page two.

Everyone should read ee cummings, even non-poetry lovers will love cummings whimsy and clever wordplay. He has also written the most beautiful, most romantic poetry of anyone in the English language.

It really is a great collection of e.e. cummings - certainly everything I wanted.

But what's to review - it's e.e. cummings, it's great

Now I must get back to my toboganning into know

Enjoy.

P.S. e.e. cummings was emphatic about his name being in lower case, so I do have to criticize the Editors of this book for putting his name in caps

One of the great poets of the 20th century gets a nice treatment here. A few of my favorites were not included (disappointed!!), but all in all this is a solid, representative anthology.

This is not a review. It is a complaint about the review I just read critisizing the editors of this fine collection. E.E. Cummings HATED that his publishers put his name in all lower case. He was not emphatic about it. He thought it was gimicky and exploitive of his publishes.
Whoa, when'd this horse get so high. ooop
S.

This review is from a strictly prose guy, as poetry usually goes right over my head. In my efforts to understand poetry, I have discovered that the work of e.e. cummings breaks through the stylistic barriers that make many people shy away from poetry altogether. cummings' use of bizarre spacing, punctuation, and phrasings keeps the reader away from the "sing-song" routine that tends to damage the credibility of many a poem, and cummings uses the art of style to say many things and make many points in just a few words. The most fascinating aspect of cummings' work is letting the small number of words in a poem really sink in until you gain many insights. This book usefully arranges cummings' most noteworthy poems into categories so you can more easily dwell on his major areas of subject matter. cummings did not live the hard life of many noteworthy poets, so a good number of his poems are musings on abstract concepts like life, love, mythology, and mortality. However, his much sharper observations on war, prostitution, politics, and the dark side of urban life can be truly shocking once you delve into their deeper meanings. Contemplating the title of this review, which is also the first line of the poem on page 181 of this book, will help any poetry-fearing reader to dive into cummings' world.

I enjoyed this book so much I bought it as a gift for family members. Wonderful book of poetry and I highly recommend it.

Mr. Rex Alford has written a collection of exquisitely crafted poems. This book of poetry should be a Must read for any poet.
The book is alive with wisdom & reflection. I would highly recommmend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry as an art form.
This is a book of style and poetic craftmanship to be savored by the lucky reader.

I first met the author through his posting of some of these poems on an internet forum. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to have this book, and I was not disappointed. It is full of beautiful love poems, and very meaningful. Mr. Alford writes from the heart, and with great skill.

I am so pleased to own a copy of Mr. Alford's, Songs of Sorrow. As an aspiring poet myself, I can appreciate the musical quality of his style. Intricate impressions take shape and dance when this work is read aloud. Mr. Alford's intimate words are brought to the page and yet, the reader rediscovers the trials of their own lives.

This poet gives sorrow a song and the reader a voice in which to sing.

I am so pleased to own a copy of Mr. Alford's, Songs of Sorrow. As an aspiring poet myself, I can appreciate the musical quality of his style. Intricate impressions take shape and dance when this work is read aloud. Mr. Alford's intimate words are brought to the page and yet, the reader rediscovers the trials of their own lives.

This poet gives sorrow a song and the reader a voice in which to sing.

these unknown authors have found a way to look at the wolrd in a way i have never seen before, and although i will never truely be able to understand their vision i am luck to have been able to see just a small part of it.

these unknown authors have found a way to look at the wolrd in a way i have never seen before, and although i will never truely be able to understand their vision i am luck to have been able to see just a small part of it.

most enlightning book of poetry i've ever read in my life. it speaks of the hardships an up and coming poet goes through. A must read for all poetry fans

From Zachary Dempster's abstract visuals, Alex Gang's subtle humor, James Leon Suffern's and Matthew Moon's vocal wordslinging, Jen Makholm's postmodernist word play, John Kersey's storytelling, Matt Levy's linguistic brillance, and the duel poetic geniuses of Janaka Stucky and Scott Creney, this is one of the best collections of young poets to grace the American stage.

My brain split like a fresh apple the first time I read this book. This book, a grenade; a bird soaring westward over the graves of dead poet laureates, its wings' flapping roar like the sound of communication breaking down. A must for your musty shelf. Get your hands on it. I swear.

Who knew sitting in an office waiting for a friend would be so uplifting?? I was introduced to Story People in just this way...as an office copy. I picked it up and read it cover to cover. Then I went out and recommended it to everybody! I particularly like the dreams, so beautiful, so right.

It's hard to describe what Story People are. The book is a collection of poems that aren't really poems, but more like half-ponderings. Each feels like a tiny glimpse into the head of a stick-figure child. Some are funny. Some sad. Most moving in some way. But to say they're poems would make them sound too serious. They definitely don't take themselves seriously. There's some drawings too, mostly really poorly drawn stick figures that somehow perfectly illustrate the stories. It doesn't feel like an inspirational book, but when I finished I felt really inspired.

We first found Brian Andreas' work in a charming shop in Cambria, California. We gave this book as a gift to our 86 year old mother. She loves it, as we do. Something to sit down with and know that it will warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. Mr. Andreas brings a new perspective to the simple and the complex situations in life. A must buy for the New Year!

Brian Andreas is one of the most uniquely talented people out there, and this book is a great starting point for appreciating his work. Within 5 minutes of picking up this book, you want to call everyone you know and tell them to run to the nearest bookstore for a copy of their own. You can read this book every day and still discover something new every time. No matter what mood you're in, there's a story to match it. Buy this book...and then buy all the rest of Brian's books, too.

A person is confined to his/her individual perception of the world. It's like we all have a welder's mask with only a pinhole through which to view reality. Whenever we can widen our perspective it is, indeed, liberating - it feels good. We can only do this by borrowing another person's peep hole. Brian Andreas' is a kaleidoscope. He generously shares his with us in his short little stories and primative, detailed drawings. "Story People" liberates, invigorates and widens worlds. Smile, laugh, and wonder. Have a peep.