Family Poetry

Her son is left behind in a store by her husband. Again, and again. What is Heidi Esther gonna do to fix her husband this time? She desperately tries to go back to the bliss of ignorance in her perfect suburban marriage. But, with a new bestie, her pastor, and an unexpected coworker at her side, she comes face-to-face with what she’s left behind. And what she discovers about herself and her life leave her awake, breathless, surrounded by Kleenex, and learning from trees.

Finding Light in Philadelphia is a collection of poetry and short stories that explore several existential questions and society issues. The book takes the listener on an exciting journey filled with thought-provoking questions, excitement, deep reflection, and self-evaluation.

A poetry collection about the beautiful and disorienting period of new motherhood, exploring an experience both otherworldly and very, very human.

My latest book is called Looking Back: A Poets Journey and is my sixth poetry book in just a year and a half. It has been a very tearful and emotional time as I wrote down the pages and started looking back at some of my fans favorites and some of the poetry that made the poet you see today. I hope that you enjoy listening to them as I have enjoyed writing them for you all. Words can never express the happiness that I have inside and I want to thank you all for such a wonderful journey so far.

A radiant collection of poetry about womanhood, intimacy, and the body politic that together evokes the arc of an ordinary life. Nabaneeta Dev Sen's rhythmic lines explore the joys and agonies of first love, childbirth, and decay with a restless, tactile imagination, both picking apart and celebrating the rituals that make us human.

What My Hand Say, on one hand, is a bold unapologetic tribute to Black people living their lives in South Carolina. While on other hand, it is a palpable reckoning with the state’s weighted history. In this book, Glenis Redmond’s poems span from the 1800s to the present. The impact of going from poem to poem purposely causes emotional whiplash, as if to say welcome to the volatile place, in which “I/we have always had to live.”

These are a collection of poems that I wrote as a teen, young adult, newlywed wife, and mom. I hope you enjoy them, and always welcome and appreciate feedback from my listeners.

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with a stolen gun, threatens his girlfriend, Emily Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after, angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where two quirky fellow students and the spirit of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged self, to find the good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

Adnan Zakir loves table tennis. He's also colorblind, left-handed, and has a fondness for the aviation alphabet. He's super close with his sister, Aaliyah, who is a great dancer and memorizer of Quran, and he loves his little toddler brother Rizwan, who only wants to grow up and play table tennis like his big brother. All Adnan dreams of is making it to the Ultimate Table Tennis Championship in Florida, and if he qualifies for the tournament, he knows he will get to spend the Eid holiday with his cousins!

The work of Carl Dennis has won praise for its “integrity, its substance, and its seemingly effortless craft; and for its embodiment of passionate inquiry” (Times Literary Supplement). The title of his new collection, Earthborn, helps to point the way to its two central concerns: how to find meaning, as creatures of the earth, in lives that are short and frail and destined to be forgotten; and how, as stewards of the earth, to address the need to protect our home from ourselves, from the menace to life posed by our own species.

A Loving Sonnet of Passion :: Poem about Karolina Describes this exquisite girls musical presence with her violin. Her youth, yet musical ability astounds. Her passion for her instrument and what it can convey to others, shines through.

"BARBAR [Tavshedens objekt]" er en digtsamling om brutalitet. Amina Elmi skriver om at leve med en kappet forbindelse til sin families historie, ritualer, sprog og identitet. I sine digte forsøger hun at etablere en forbindelse til alt det tabte, men tavsheden står som et tomt centrum – alt det, der ikke kan siges, fordi der ikke findes et sprog for det, eller fordi det er for smertefuldt. Det er digte om tavshed som både nødvendighed og vold. Amina Elmi (f. 1994) bliver uddannet fra Forfatterskolen til sommer. "BARBAR [Tavshedens objekt]" er hendes debut.

The co-author of Watch Us Rise pens a novel in verse about all the good and bad that comes with middle school, growing up girl, and the strength of family that gets you through it. Beatrice Miller may have a granny’s name (her granny's, to be more specific), but she adores her Mamaw and her mom, who give her every bit of wisdom and love they have. But the summer before seventh grade, Bea wants more than she has, aches for what she can't have, and wonders what the future will bring.

The poems in Yanyi’s latest book suggest that we enter and exit our old selves like homes. We look through the windows and recognize some former aspect of our lives that is both ours and not ours. We long for what we had even as we recognize that we can no longer live there. Yanyi conjures the beloved both within and without us: the beloved we believe we know, the beloved who is never the person we imagine, and the beloved who threatens to erase us even as we stand before them.

While the poetry you’ll listen to in Ron Wallace’s latest collection speaks of serious topics such as loss and the inescapable progression of time, you’ll also find plenty of humor in this book. His words bring to life his beloved Oklahoma prairies and skies, and his own family members. Wallace’s reflections on childhood, his parents, and, of course, baseball, are heartwarming.

One of the many joys of Christmas comes from the traditions associated with it. Best-selling author Caroline Kennedy drew on her own family's traditions to create this charming collection of favorite stories, poems, and writings that celebrate the holiday spirit.

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.

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.

Across three sequences, Joshua Bennett’s new book recalls and reimagines social worlds almost but not entirely lost, all while gesturing toward the ones we are building even now, in the midst of a state of emergency, together. Bennett opens with a set of autobiographical poems that deal with themes of family, life, death, vulnerability, and the joys and dreams of youth.

Poems exploring our most fragile points of connection to lovers and family, to the living and the dead, and to oneself, one's own life's work—with the care and wisdom of one who knows these roads.