Family Poetry

The poems in Riddim & Riddles throb with the heartbeat and drum beat of Jamaica. From the cool, majestic Blue Mountains to the hot, bloodied streets of Kingston it paints vivid and vibrant images of contemporary Jamaica. The poems in this collection move from urgent social insights about masculinity, the environment, and how the bony fingers of history reach into the present.

The women in Allison Adair’s debut collection—luminous and electric from the first line to the last—live in places that have been excavated for gold and precious ores. They understand the nature of being hollowed out, of being “the planet’s stone / core as it tries to carve out one secret place and fails.” And so, as these poems take us from the midst of the Civil War to our current era, they chart fairy tales that are at once unsettling and painfully familiar, never forgetting that cruelty compels us to search for tenderness.

In a working-class family that considers sensitivity a “fatal diagnosis,” how does a child grow up to be a poet? What happens when a body “meant to bend & breed” opts not to, then finds itself performing the labor of care regardless? Why do we think our “common griefs” so singular? Bad Hobby is a hard-earned meditation on questions like these—a dreamscape speckled with swans, ghosts, and weather updates.

In these poems, Kleber-Diggs names delight in the same breath as loss. Moments suffused with love—teaching his daughter how to drive; watching his grandmother bake a cake; waking beside his beloved to ponder trumpet mechanics—couple with moments of wrenching grief—a father’s life ended by a gun; mourning children draped around their mother’s waist; Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. Even in the refuge-space of dreams, a man calls the police on his Black neighbor.

In the collection of prose and poetry Letter to My Wife & Other Tales, his sequel to the successful The Time of Our Lives: Memories and Fantasies of a Blissful Nonagenarian, 96-year-old Elliot Schubert etches incisive portraits of the family members, friends and colleagues. These are the stories of those who helped shape his extraordinary journey through the 20th and 21st centuries as an athlete, Naval officer, scholar, scientist, writer, husband, and father.

This collection of poems by Jim Forbes is a rare rendering that will invite you to keep listening. Heartbreak from a failed marriage and separation from his beloved daughters both brought this poet to write during his darkest times.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Love Drunk: A Poem and learn about poetry.

Poetic Perspectives brings to parchment two decades of this author's finest poetry. Deemed the Thomas Kinkade of poetry, Wolfe pens to paper words, thoughts, ponderings, history, personal experiences, patriotism, love, and loss. He clearly expresses delight in his rhyming verse and subject matter. You will experience his artistic vision and be amazed at the brushstrokes provided by his mental mastery of life's precious moments. He will capture you and hold you in his grasp, bringing forth a tear, a smile, a deeper thought, and an awakening to some of the more important things in life.

It’s the morning of Nana’s wedding, and Deji and Daddy need haircuts – right away! Join them on a race against the clock to make sure they look slick just in time to walk Nana down the aisle. This story features a fun and heart-warming portrayal of the quality time spent between parent and child.

Songs for My Father is a raw and honest collection of free verse poetry about the author’s relationship with her father. It chronicles how his anger and abuse left her emotionally trapped for many years, and how she found her way back into herself through her art. Katherine Lazaruk takes the listener through her early childhood experiences, drawing connections between how family, music, and learning shaped the writer and artist within her. It is a poignant window into the things that so often go unspoken, the elephants in the rooms of our families.

This book is based on the life experiences of a little girl who had to grow up fast. She was a mother at the age of 14. She had an apartment and adult bills at the age of 15. She struggled in an urban environment to do the right thing, but kept doing the wrong until she had enough experiences in life to guide her through her storm. Learning by experiences and not giving up, today she is a successful business owner, and her daughter is also a successful business owner. She has two beautiful, respectful, and smart granddaughters.

In this stunning debut, John Belk looks at the world of professional wrestling to excavate the real within the artificial and explore the projections we create, run from, and delight in. In The Gardens of Our Childhoods, the distance between spectacle and reality blurs.

After a year of distance-learning, Emily Sofer finds her world turned upside down: she has to leave the only school she's ever known to attend a public school in Chinatown. For the first time, Emily isn't the only Chinese student around...but looking like everyone else doesn't mean that understanding them will be easy—especially with an intimidating group of cool girls Emily calls The Five. When Emily discovers that her adoptive parents have been keeping a secret, she feels even more uncertain about who she is. A chance discovery of Emily Dickinson's poetry helps her finally feel seen.

Sinéad Hoben was born in Newry, Northern Ireland in 1973. A qualified English teacher, she has published several children's books and written short articles for online publications. This, her first poetry collection, reflects her thoughts and memories during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Parting Ways is a book of poetry in support of birth mothers and our adopted children. Birth mothers, may you always know what a courageous and selfless decision you had to make. And to all our adopted children, may you know how much you are loved and cherished by the women who carried you and still do in their hearts forever.

Life, love, and work intertwine with nature and a unique series of poems, in Tom's revised edition of his successful book of poetry. No matter what the day-to-day challenges are, as life unfolds, Tom shows us - through his poetry - that life is about enjoying what we can in every single moment.

Living in God's Love is a poetic look at some of the most pressing issues affecting our inner-city communities. This book seeks to pull back the curtains and open dialogue to build unity, bridge peace, foster compassion, promote conversations, and assist us in uplifting hearts and bringing empathy into every conversation.

This collection of pieces that I have written is, in my opinion, some of my best writing thus far in my short endeavor into being an author. They are poems and quotes about relationships that I have had over my lifetime, and though most I will never see or hear from again, they still are and will always be very much alive in my ink and memories. With that being said, there are always those that stand out in my heart, mind, and soul more than all the others and today are a very big part of my life in one way or another.

Teaching children to have loving thoughts and a positive attitude should begin from the day they are born. Young children may not recall the exact details of the things that happened during their early childhood years, but exposing them to joyful moments will leave a positive impact. Sharing some meaningful, loving, and happy moments can help your child develop into a person with a favorable personality.

woke up no light is a Black girl’s saunter turned to a woman’s defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. A mouth swung open and ready to devour. A quest for home in a world that knows only wasteland and wanting.