Life Poetry

Keeping her brother, Benji, warm, fed, and away from their father is Louisa's only goal in life. When the state steps in and places them in separate foster homes, her world falls apart. Louisa, in crisis, discovers slam poetry. The spoken word performances reveal people sharing pieces of themselves on stage for the world to hear. The transparency she sees frightens her but also holds the key to her future...if she's brave enough to give her story a voice.

Enjoy a beautiful, simple, sensitive, imaginative, warm, and loving collection of thoughts for life. They are written to encourage us in our daily lives, during times of crisis such as when we are depressed, grieving, lacking direction, stressed, and heartache - helping us find enlightenment and peace, bringing relaxation and calm. Writings about nature, family, bereavement, love, joy, and laughter.

The start of the school year is bringing a lot of changes for Rain: New school. No Circle Group. No Dr. McCalla. No Miss Walia. No step team. And Xander, her older brother and superhero, is away at college. Although everyone else seems okay with change, Rain struggles to open up to her new counselor, her mom, Umi, Alyssa, and even Xander, who seems to have forgotten all about her while away at college. But when an older boy starts giving Rain more attention than she asked for—will she be able to open up again before things go too far?

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!

Ebony and De’Kari (aka Flow) do not get along. How could they when their cafeteria scuffle ended with De'Kari's ruined shoes, Ebony on the ground, and both of them with ten days of at-home suspension? Now Eb and Flow have two weeks to think about and explain their behavior—to their families, to each other, and ultimately to themselves. Single-parent homes, tight funds, and sibling dynamics provide a balancing act for the growing tweens. And whether they realize it or not, these two have a lot more in common than they think.

In the late 1980s, the vibrant Los Angeles poetry scene gave voice to a new wave of writers and spoken-word artists. The essence of Don’t Be Shy represents one man’s passage through the eclectic coffee houses and performance art venues that celebrated diversity and uncensored self-expression. This collection of poems navigates the existential and often humorous landscape of love and longing, social commentary and spiritual awakening, to arrive at an awareness shared by one who embraced the enigmatic creative promise of the City of Angels.

Smiles and Cries is a book of life-affirming storytelling poetry that will move, inspire, motivate, encourage, and enlighten anyone, anywhere who has the opportunity to hear it. I truly feel that everyone who listens to this book will find that much of its content applies to them in their daily lives or that they can relate to most of its content in some way. If you enjoy hearing truly unique poetry, then this is one you don't want to miss!

Ever felt like a grump? In this delightful musical audiobook. The House That Jack Built, poor old Jack starts out grim and grumbly. But even Jack can't resist warming up with the help of his singing and dancing barnyard friends right out of your favorite nursery rhymes. A tale - or tail? - of love, life, and forgiveness promises fun-filled family entertainment with bluegrass music and memorable moments.

When twelve-year-old Estie is expelled from school, she's sent to stay with her aunt in Scotland over the summer. Even though Estie knows what she did was right. Even though nobody, not even her mum, asked to hear her side of the story. Estie's determined to keep her barriers up and stick to herself until the holidays are over. But when she comes across an intricately folded paper bird with a secret message written inside - a message from someone desperate to tell their own unbelieved story - a chord is struck, and Estie can't help but follow the clues to the next piece of artwork.

A keen awareness of this present moment, and real gratitude for it, will bring you ever closer to the inner joy you long for. In Life's a Mango, Jen Compton applies universal ideas to remind us that there's always a kinder way of dealing with life's situations.

The Sioux Indians said that the longest journey we will ever take is from the head to the heart. Jen's book is a travel companion to help you get there–in a soothing, inspiring way. Using parts of the mango as metaphors–the skin, the brown bits, the flesh and the seed–Jen's inspirational poetry sheds a more positive, compassionate light on life. It will make you smile, reflect, and ultimately it will help to bring our the best version of you!

In his award-winning memoir Free Lunch, Rex Ogle’s abuela features as a source of love and support. In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence a woman he could always count on—to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in.

Henry has been deaf from an early age. He's intelligent and aware of language, but by age six, he has decided it's not safe to speak to strangers. When the time comes for him to start school, he is labeled "unteachable." Because his family has very little money, his parents and older sister, Molly, feel powerless to help him. Henry's sent to Riverview, a bleak institution where he is misunderstood, underestimated, and harshly treated. Victor, a conscientious objector to World War II, is part of a Civilian Public Service program and arrives at Riverview to serve as an attendant in 1942.

Celebrate the slips and slides and swims and glides of delightful penguins in poetry and song.

Poetry readers often interpret the works of poets such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Tupac Shakur. But in the absence of commentary from the authors, interpreters must guess at the meaning. The ones best suited to explain have always been the authors. And the author’s commentary is what makes A Not So Ordinary Book of Poetry: Your Life Has Purpose! unique. It includes encouraging and inspirational backstories of the authors’ poems.

This poetry book speaks to many levels of relationships. It reads like a story and will take you through a journey of someone being in love, marital bliss to a feeling of betrayal and broken heartedness. The back-and-forth feelings is one that many could relate to. In order to get your life back, one must have a time of reconstruction. Center yourself, focus on the divine higher power and love yourself. You will be taken on a poetically written journey as you enjoy, learn, cry, meditate and lose yourself in the moment in poetry and for some, it will help with your healing process.

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.

Rhymes of Reason is a book of inspirational poems with messages centered on Biblical wisdom, instruction and encouragement. Each poem is framed with the Scriptural references that inspired it.

Life Lessons in the Key of Life can be summarized by the following: It takes all kinds of people to make a world. The good, bad, and ugly consequences one goes through and deals with on a daily basis.

Life Is a Drama is a Pandora's Box. Tom observes the pain of the world and yet he optimistically insists that we can turn things around through respect, kindness, resilience, and hope.