Poetry Books

This is a beautiful and personal book of poetry that explores the different people and places to which the poet feels a connection. He mixes metaphor, references to stories in literature and clear descriptions of events and feelings to poignantly communicate the way people and places have touched his heart.
I am alienated by poetry that is dense and too complicated to grasp on a first read. This poetry is opposite of that, I find it clear, accessible and moving.

We owe a debt of gratitude to David Whyte for work which lacks the obscure, murky, digressive qualities often associated with poetry and which are responsible for turning large segments of the reading public away from quality literature.

He writes with exquisite simplicity about life's monumental concerns: love, creativity, aloneness, beauty. These are the very things which, by virtue of their universality, should be easily perceptible, but which we have made endlessly complicated.

There is a pervasive, Zen-like aspect to Mr. Whyte's work. By following him back to the wild Yorkshire moors of his youth and forward to the vast potential of the land he adopted in adulthood, we are reminded to take note of each moment, to pay heed to even the most mundane articles of daily existence --- bees, trees, daisies, dishes, kettles --- because they are all facets of the ever-changing whole that is each life.

Whether dealing with the fullness of nature's many moods, or the long search for a special connection with another human being, his poems each hold at their core a lustrous pearl of truth.

He speaks to a generation now learning to accept the difficult, i.e., that not all dreams are possible but that new hopes can rise to take their place, that there is a continuance of life after what one believed to be an `only' love, and that solitude can be a genesis site for constructive activity, realization and joy.

This is one of my favorite books of poetry -- ever. Like many other reviewers have noted here, Whyte's poetry lacks that murky and inaccessible quality that so many modern poets seem to strive for, as if they DON'T want us to "get" what they are trying to say. Whyte's poetry, on the other hand, is accessible without being simplistic. These poems celebrate the art and craft of a careful writer and a deeply thoughtful soul -- and they invite us inside. I love this stuff.

A few weeks ago I started listening to David Whyte's Clear Mind Wild Heart. I kept having to stop the playback to think about what he said, and rewind to hear parts again. At times I realized I had already heard one of the six CD's but it had so much depth in it that it was like listening to a new CD.

Naturally I wanted to read a book of his poetry (he'd read many of his poems in the CD's). I was not disappointed. Even having heard them, reading them to myself I was surprised that he crystallized and spoke what I was thinking and feeling, seemingly knowing it better than I myself.

As the title would suggest its predominant theme is belonging, and of coming to feel belonging by coming to recognize yourself, or the struggle to recognize yourself. His method is not to be obscure but to be observant and put that into language that you ... well I have a quote of his that says, "Poetry is the art of creating language against which there is no defense." He does just that. I am coming to understand more and more how he believes we must all set aside time to write, mediate, pray, or read poetry. They are all variations on the theme of observing who we are, the world around us, and how we can belong in that world and in our own skins. If you are on the journey to find belonging I'd whole heartily recommend the couple hours it takes to read this poetry.

David Whyte has written a book that I can curl up in. The House of Belonging is so full of things I understand that I wonder that I didn't write it myself. But I don't have the gift to reach people in that way. Whyte has this gift. If you love Mary Oliver's poetry I think you'll be very pleased you picked this up for yourself.

My friend Ben, thank you so much for this wonderful tool to take on my journey. It has been a blessing to read with my six year old grandaughter, she is reading some and she noticed tonight that Melissa was not gray toward the end of the book, she understands what she was going thru. All three of the books have been a wonder addition to our
home.
I just purchased a set as a gift for someone who is going into private practice and I think this would be a wonder addition to his library.

This is the third book we've bought in the Express Yourself series and we continue to be blown away by how fantastic these books are in helping people work through all of the feelings that come upon us during times of loss and death. We have shared all of them with friends who have experienced the grieving process and I would agree with other reviews that they are helpful for children and adults alike. The artistry and imagery really bring the stories to life. What a well done series!!

School Administrators: As a retired school administrator I highly recommend this book as being an appropriate selection for your school's resource center. The manifestation of grief often comes unexpectedly. This would be a wonderful resource book to have on hand to share with a student who needs reassurance that the feelings they are experiencing are 'normal'. The book is also an appropriate selection for adults.

If you are wishing to express your appreciation to a teacher, administrator, or school, this would be an appropriate end-of-the-school-year gift.

My nine year old daughter has had to learn first hand how it feels to lose a sister. She has read "Incredibly Lonley, That's Me" and has shared the book with her friends, probably in hopes that they will understand how she feels about the loss of her loved one. We have had open and honest discussions about her feelings and how she understands some of the feelings that the girl in the story talks about. I would recommend this book to be read and shared with children who have experienced a significant loss.

A wonderful book that really helped me come to terms with a death in my family. Thank you Ben!

I love this book. I use to read this book to my children when they were little. Now my children have children, and I wanted them to also enjoy this fun book. To me, this represents all my childhood memories of Halloween. I love the illustrations! I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Halloween.

Great poems for Halloween. Fun to read aloud with one child or a group of children. I used it in my classroom for many years. I bought this copy to donate to the library at my church.

my mom enjoys telling this story:

when i was about four, she checked "it's halloween" out at our local small-town library and brought it home. i made her read it every night, memorizing every word, and if she tried to skip a page, i'd call her on it.

when it came time to return the book, she couldn't find it and had to pay for a new copy for the library. some time later, she was cleaning my room and discovered where i'd stashed my copy under my bed.

greatest halloween book, and among the greatest children's books in general, ever.

I still have the copy my mother gave to me in 1978!! It is my favorite children's book, and it should be a part of every home library. The illustrations are great, and the little poems are so catchy.

It is the best Halloween book ever. It has just the right amount of creepiness to get kids really excited about Halloween. A fun book with simple rhyme schemes and memorable illustrations, it will keep kids interested. I'm 27 and I still love it.

Witty, surprising, and focused, Kinky is a book of poetry that I purchased a long time ago and reread almost every other week. I love Duhamel's sense of humor -- it is biting. The theme of the book could not be more fitting. Scrutinizing Barbie, her inadequacies, her flaws, her perceptions of reality, is a fascinating foreground set against a background of political, social, and emotional turmoil. Highly recommended to all readers!

There's a rumor floating around that Duhamel's got a Selected Poems forthcoming from _________. (I don't want to start a stampede). It's about time. Kinky is yet more evidence that Ms. Duhamel is quickly becoming one of our shrewdest social critics.

First off this is one of the funniest books of serious petry ever written. Second, using Barbie to show all the hypocracy and flaws in our culture and society works wonderfully. Third the empathy the poems show for those of us, for whatever reason, don't fit the Barbie and Ken mode is truly touching.

Modern poetry tends to drool over itself when addressing sexuality. Kinky touches on modern american sexuality with a healthy willingness to see diversity in behaviour. There is no lurid, smutty element in this book. It has no deep-seated sense of shame; that is so common as the motivation in modern poems. I felt happiness as the motovation in these poems. A good read.

I've read all of Denise Duhamel's collections of poetry. _Kinky_ is the funniest, most focussed, most controlled, least self-absorbed, most accomplished of them all. I've given it to friends and shared it with my family, and we all absolutely love it.

Authors k.t. Frankovich and David Taub were invited to be guest speakers at the Florida Writers Association's 1st Annual convention/Royal Palm Book Awards. It took place from Friday 25th through Sunday 27th, October at the Orlando/Altamonte Springs Hilton Hotel. They gave a one hour Poetry Presentation (on Saturday), which preceded the Royal Palm Book Awards dinner (the Book Awards took place later at 10pm).

125 guests, which included some of the 400 FWA members, publishers, editors, agents, book store reps, etc., attended the entire evening event.

Approximately 150 titles had been submitted, over the past 6 months, for just about every genre of writing imaginable. The 'judging system' had been incredibly carefully devised, whereby copies of submissions were sent out literally all over the US - every judge had no idea who the other judges were, and each one had no connection / relationship to anyone belonging to the FWA - its members or the FWA Board members, Officers, Directors, etc.

The 'scoring system' by each judge, for each book, was also very detailed - a list of criteria requiring a 'rating' for each aspect of the book, effectively giving an overall score book / per judge.

The judging took place over several weeks, and all the rating sheets were then returned to a panel of the Directors, and collated by them PLUS overseen and notarised by an attorney! The collating of each book's scores, alone, took 17 hours! A small number of genre categories had been pre-determined, so that each genre category would have its own award - a Winner and Runner-up per category. THEN, finally, an overall "Best Book of the Year" award.

For the Poetry category, there were approximately 40 books entered. Language of Souls walked away with the category's Best Poetry Book award!

Then, the FWA's President and founder, Glenda Ivey, prior to the Grand Finale of naming the overall "Best Book of the Year" winner, announced that the overall winning book had achieved something wholly unexpected by the 'collating panel' - Namely that, while the overall winner had 'simply' needed to have the highest score of all the entrants, it had achieved a flawless 100% maximum score for EVERY criteria by EVERY judge. And so, this obviously can never be beaten - but only ever equalled - in their future annual book awards.

Frankovich and Taub were stunned into absolute silence, when it was announced that the "Book of the Year" winner was........ Language of Souls.

In a later interview, Frankovich commented, "While we are obviously elated that Language of Souls won this award, what has stunned us the most is that a poetry book out-scored every other genre."

This iz good but this iz not az gud az Flubblebop

Yim yam widdley woooo!

This book, consisting of the poems of k.t. Frankovich, Ruth Solomon and David Taub, is beautifully presented with illustrations by Freydoon Rassouli.

The poems are positive and hopeful. And they are written in a form that can be easily understood. I enjoyed them immensely.

Three super-poets,Solomon,Taub and Frankovich ,plus the artistic mind of Rassouli... Swept away to the serenity of Taub,ripped to realities harshness ,Solomon (of course) Frankovich's ,from tears to fantasy cropped with Rassouli's surrealizm,,, what's not to like?

It seems, from reading the other reviews, this is a poetry book spreading around the world. I am sharing my copy with some of my friends and the comments are all the same. "I never knew books were produced like this anymore!" It is like an oasis of beautifully readable poetry in the desert of obscure and esoteric writing, which has pervaded the poetry world over the past decade. I was lucky to find this as a result of reading the autobiography by one of the 3 poets - k.t. Frankovich and her book, 'Where Heavens Meet'.

First: Balzac, even in translation, is a literary giant. He paints vivid, often dark pictures of 'society' and adds no detail in jest. There is meaning everywhere.

You can read Colonel Chabert in a couple hours, dwell on it for several days after, and be done. This is a wonderful translation from the French; with it, you can mine most of Balzac's intentions without having to consult a companion piece or Balzac guru.

The story is all about life, death, and "social" identity. Others have summarized the story well, but I will refrain. For this one, all you need is a solid literary mind and a few hours. In this edition, Balzac is direct and beautiful; from the dead rising to gateways between worlds to the lamentable futility of morality for its own sake, there is no want for vivid description.

"Colonel Chabert" is one of Honore de Balzac's volumes from his omnibus work, "The Human Comedy." The Colonel is a comic figure in and old military great coat and a wig who is ridiculed by young legal workers at the beginning of the novel. But, the joke is on the clerks, because Chabert is a war hero of the Napoleonic era who was given up for dead on a battlefield at Eylau. This translation from the French by Carol Grosman tells the story of the old soldier's resurrection in contemporary jargon. The novel is relevant today considering the service of soldiers in many wars continuing in our world. What happens to these heroes when wars end, or more accurately, shift to new fronts? Balzac paints the portrait of one old colonel who remains honorable and as a consequence seals his fate. The translation is very readable and the short novel is brief "scene from private life." The work will stimulate further interest in the monumental work of Balzac who had a relatively short life (1799-1850).

...of a great Balzac novella. Ms. Cosman captures the rigorous, logical quality of Balzac's prose - most translators get lost in unidiomatic wordiness. This 100 page novella showcases the Master's comfort with legal matters, his profound understanding of "the fang and the claw" and features at its center the incomparable Derville, Balzac's great, recurring lawyer character. I usually recommend Pere Goriot for first-time Balzac readers because of the rich connections between that novel and many other Balzac works - but I am hard pressed to imagine a better one-course meal than this rendering of Colonel Chabert by Ms. Cosman. I certainly plan to read her version of The Girl with the Golden Eyes.

One of the greatest novelists of all time, Balzac was most at home in the Paris of Post-Napoleonic Paris. In a time when the middle class was showing its strength and starting to reach towards the aristocracy, Balzac shows just how selfish and grubby and greedy humans can be in attaining and how treacherous they can be in keeping their all important upward mobility.

Colonel Chabert is a man disfigured in the Napoleonic Wars who was left for dead on a battlefield. After digging his way out of a mass grave, he finds that he has no legal right to his title or his massive estate. Nobody will believe his true identity. For ten longe years he goes about trying to communicate his plight to anyone who will listen. They only see a crazy bum, and his wife rebuffs his letters. She already has a new husband and kids. Finally Chabert is able to convince a lawyer named Dervilles to accept his case, namely that of reclaiming his title, lands, and wife. The problem is that noone is really interested in his life being resurrected. Most people would rather that he remained dead. So begins the ludicrous battle of a man against the law to prove his own existence.

This short but great novel, or novella, is a tragic take on the world's thirst for social status and the judgement by visuals that our society is only too guilty of to this day. If it walks like a bum, talks like a bum, it must be a bum. Colonel Chabert has such a hard time convincing people of his identity because of how they perceive him. It sounds echoes of Frankenstein in that a good man is reduced to a monster when all he really needs is love. The fact that even his wife wishes he were dead just drives home the isolated suffering of the book. As in all Balzac novels, you feel a world moving under the mantle of the book. The Human Comedy of Balzac is one of the crowning achievements of literature and ranks right up there with Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy.

Balzac, one of the greatest writers who ever lived, did not trip up with this one. I read it with great pleasure and conclude, as people so often say, that the movie based on the story did not equal the original. Ever the cynic (some might say 'the realist') Balzac portrays here the efforts of a noble-minded soldier, who rose from an orphanage to serve his country under Napoleon in Egypt and eastern Europe, only to reap the all-too-common fate of dedicated and true warriors---to be forgotten and ignored. Death (which he accepted) might have seized him, but he found a living death, a denial of his sanity and identity, as the reward of his service. Reported killed at the battle of Eylau, against the Russians, after a heroic action, the soldier literally crawls from his grave to a kind of shadowy survival. In his earlier life, Colonel Chabert had raised a woman to his own status, but now finds that she is unwilling to let others learn of her origins and does not want to recognize that he is, in fact, her long lost husband. Honestly thinking she was widowed, she married a highborn aristocrat who knew nothing of her humble beginnings.

The tale is one of greed, intrigue, loyalty and disloyalty. As usual, Balzac manages to cast a light, pitiless and bright, on every rotten corner of the human condition, while offering a few inspiring examples in contrast. Every detail of a lawyer's life in 19th century Paris is scrutinized, every glimpse of urban dairyman or elite country squirehood rings true. No wonder I admire him so much, no wonder I have no hesitation in urging you to read COLONEL CHABERT and any other volume of Balzac you can lay your hands on.

To read Mary Oliver's The Leaf and the Cloud is to be swept up in a journey that is both intimate and universal at the same time. At once describing, with breathtaking lucidity, the epic beauty and staggering complexity of nature, then suddenly referring to her own humanity with poignant inquisitions, Oliver traverses internal and external environments in an elegant interplay that is, quite simply, addictive.
Not just a "Nature Poet" or "Neo-Romantic", Oliver moves beyond poetry that merely observes nature or draws quaint metaphors from its form, to a new level that celebrates humanity and nature as two parts of an indefinable, mysterious and ultimately beautiful whole.
Their is so much joy in the way in which Oliver describes the world that it is contagious, and you will forever view your surroundings differently as a result of reading this book. It isn't just her exquisite grasp of nature that makes this book so pleasurable, however, it is also the way in which she unravels her own character and story within the natural environment that makes you keep turning the pages.
This was my first encounter with Oliver's work, but certainly not the last. Highly recommended.

In this poem, Mary Oliver walks us through the journey of life and calls
on us to pay attention and see, smell and hear. She asks death to "unstring
my bones,let me be not one thing but all things..."

In these days of violence and blaming of actions on past grievances, Oliver
says of her dead parents,
"I give them-one, two, three, four- the kiss of courtesy
of sweet thanks,
of anger, of good luck in the deep earth.
May they sleep well. May they soften.

But I will not give them the kiss of complicity.
I will not give them the responsibility for my life."

Powerful, strong words.

Mary Oliver is a magnificent, aware voice, speaking in a deep, almost spiritual way. She transforms daily life, a drive, a walk, a look across the fields, into magical, sensitive,moments of awe.

Few works stand across generations lighting the best American writers. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and Mary Oliver's The Leaf and The Cloud, are two. The difference is that Oliver is alive and working today. I rejoice in her bravery to write the real work, that because it is real, lush, sensual, and drives deep into an open reader's soul like the tendrils of exuberant vines, will likely endure for future generations as long as humans do. Remember that Whitman wasn't completely embraced in his era either, and many opinion makers expecting whatever they were expecting, turned on him as did James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, after the Civil War.

The best advice is to form your own opinion. Borrow a copy of Mary Oliver's The Leaf and The Cloud, read it. If you respond to it as I have, you will be buying your own copy of a living American legend.

Mary Oliver is amazing. I read this book because it was recommended by my English Lit. prof., and then I loved it and had to go out and buy it. Mary Oliver literally wrote the book on free verse poetry (see, "The Poetry Handbook" by the same author). The way the words flow is beautiful. Even if you don't really like modern poetry, I think you'll fall in love with this long poem.

I give this book as gifts to friends who are expecting their first baby. This poetry is easy to read to the kids, but even more it will teach you great and simple things every parent should know. I also recommend this book to survivors of trauma to help them re-parent or change their understanding of what parents should have been like.

This book should be handed out to every mom and dad the day their baby is delivered. It has the simplest yet most profound advice any parent could receive. I have given this book to new parents sinc it was published and I am disheartened that it is no longer in publication. Let's send letters to get it back into circulation. It is by far the BEST! Sincerely Cecilee

This book is awesome and should be owned by every Mother in the world and Father, for that matter. Children don't always tell you what they feel, even when they know, and this book gives you things to think about. No mother can put it down once they begin to read it.

This books offers wonderful insight to becoming a more attentive parent. Through real life events, the author represents a particular view which parents can tap into and gain a greater understanding into their child world. Ruth Reardon's (author) perspectives easily surpasses many theoretical parenting books available today.

I am a psychotherapist dedicated to helping families function well. I so often hear from parents, "Why don't children come with instruction books?!" Well, this is as close as you can get to that. Learning to listen well. It is incredibly insightful and well-written. I recommend it to all the parents I work with and give it as a baby shower gift to all the new parents I know. It is an excellent must read.

Simply put, this is a very beautiful story. I think this would make a wonderful gift for anyone with a new baby, but especially for any couple who perhaps had a long journey to finally become parents (infertility or adoption). The last two pages of this story are especially heartwarming: 'We'd dreamed a baby, we'd wanted a baby, we'd planned for a baby, we'd waited and waited and waited for a baby, until finally, there was you.' Last page: 'And oh, how we love you!' I love this story for these two pages alone.

I cried the first time I read this book to my baby. After years of fertility issues, this book covered every emotion I felt after the birth of my first child. It would be a wonderful baby shower gift for any new mother and father.

This is a BEAUTIFUL book, the illustrations alone are worth the purchase!
The sweet story/love song is a wonderful story about how much we truly adore and celebrate our sweet babies birth, and lives.

I read it to my baby girl all the time, and I will continue to for years to come! You will love this book!

This book is perfect for anyone who had pregnancy problems. Very pretty pictures. Really good gift.

I bought this book when my oldest son was a newborn, and it has now become my trademark baby shower gift. It so simply explains the love parents have for their children and is illustrated beautifully. Four years of reading this book and I still choke up. This is a great bed time story to the kiddos when you've had a rough day! It reminds you how deep and pure the love is between parents and a child.

I read this to my class. They loved it. It is filled with humor and elicited many laughs from my students. They also reread the book on their own which always makes a teacher smile. I will put this book on my list to read every year.

My 6th grade students loved this book and I must admit, I loved it, too! Fabulous!!

My first-grader begged us for this book after having read it repeatedly at school. It's still one of her very favorites. The poems are silly and witty and fun to read aloud, and the illustrations are funny as well. Books like this really help young children develop a love for words and for reading.

This is a great rhyming book for students. It seems really relateable for children because of the content that it is written about. I was able to relate to it by remembering my school days and I found the poems to be somewhat funny.

If you want to feel less alone in the real world of honest feelings, if you want to get in touch with true feelings, if you want to understand your emotions and explore your guilt and really dig deeper than sentiment--Carol Diggery Shields is the poet for you. Her voice is more original and her psychological depth deeper than most contemporary poets. She makes you feel less alone with your inner life. There is no sentimental frosting here. This is accessible and original poetry with a crafty use of language, a flowing free verse. I've spent my life reading poetry, and I find this poet thoroughly satisfying. Spend an evening or a morning or both with her LUNCH MONEY AND OTHER POEMS ABOUT SCHOOL and you will be moved and amazed at the original angles she takes on truth and human feelings and relationships. This is a poet of psychological, philosphical realization--a thinker who really probes the inner life with grace of expression.