7 Poets 4 Days 1 Book

Lauded poet Christopher Merrill hatched a brilliant plan: invite six other poets to join him in four days of writing in Iowa City. The poets would write for 30 minutes, creating a poem of 15 lines, and then read it aloud to the group. As poets heard the poems, they noted memorable words, images, and lines, which they would borrow to insert in subsequent poems of their own. These rounds continued, until, in a process of call and response and unprecedented collaboration, 80 poems had been composed. Those 80 poems are collected in this book, penned by authors who represent some of the best and brightest the world of poetry has to offer. Transcending differences of generation, gender, language, and vision, these poets have invented an entirely new facet of the poet’s creative process.

Lauded poet Christopher Merrill hatched a brilliant plan: invite six other poets to join him in four days of writing in Iowa City. The poets would write for 30 minutes, creating a poem of 15 lines, and then read it aloud to the group. As poets heard the poems, they noted memorable words, images, and lines, which they would borrow to insert in subsequent poems of their own. These rounds continued, until, in a process of call and response and unprecedented collaboration, 80 poems had been composed. Those 80 poems are collected in this book, penned by authors who represent some of the best and brightest the world of poetry has to offer. Transcending differences of generation, gender, language, and vision, these poets have invented an entirely new facet of the poet’s creative process.

The poems in this anthology document the political and personal events of the president's crucial first days through a variety of contemporary poetic voices.

In the course of researching dogwood trees, beloved poet and essayist Christopher Merrill realized that a number of formative moments in his life had some connection to the tree named—according to one writer—because its fruit was not fit for a dog. As he approached his sixtieth birthday, Merrill began to compose a self-portrait alongside this tree whose lifespan is comparable to a human’s and that, from an early age, he’s regarded as a talisman. Dogwoods have never been far from Merrill’s view at significant moments throughout his life, helping to shape his understanding of place in the great chain of being; entwined in his experience is the conviction that our relationship to the natural world is central to our walk in the sun. The feeling of a connection to nature has become more acute as his life has taken him to distant corners of the earth, often to war zones where he has witnessed not only humankind’s propensity for violence and evil but also the enduring power of connections that can be forged across languages, borders, and politics. Dogwoods teach us persistence humility and wonder. Self-Portrait with Dogwood is no ordinary memoir, but rather the work of a traveler who has crisscrossed the country and the globe in search of ways to make sense of his time here. Merrill provides new ways of thinking about personal history, the environment, politics, faith, and the power of the written word. In his descriptions of places far and near, many outside of the average American’s purview—a besieged city in Bosnia, a hidden path in a Taiwanese park, Tolstoy’s country house in Russia, a castle in Slovakia, a blossoming dogwood at daybreak in Seattle—the reader’s understanding of the world will flourish as well.

"Marvin Bell has the largest heart since Walt Whitman."—Harvard Review "One of our finest and most acclaimed poets."—Booklist "Charged with making the darkness visible, Bell's 'Dead Man' sometimes glows with an eerily illuminating light."—Publishers Weekly Marvin Bell is one of America's great poets, and his legacy includes the invention of a startling poetic form called the "Dead Man" poems. The Dead Man is alive and dead at once: not a persona, but an overarching consciousness, embedded in poetics and philosophy. Vertigo is the latest from the Dead Man—a brilliant, enigmatic, wise, and wild book. The dead man stands still, waiting for the boomerang to—you know. He hears the words of philosophers ricochet among chasms and disappear in the far away. His scent goes forth, his old skin, hair and nails, and he spits, too. He leans forward to look backward, and the ancient world reappears. It is the beginning, when mountains, canyons and seas were new, before the moon had eyes, before paper, before belief. Anything he says now are souvenirs of the future… Marvin Bell has published seventeen books of poetry and has received numerous honors, including the Lamont Award and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia. He taught for forty years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and was the first State Poet of Iowa. He lives in Iowa and Washington.

"There's still so much silence and underlying stigma that surrounds suicide and self-harm. Thank you for being so brave, where others, I think, are too afraid to even voice the words self-harm and suicide." It is undeniable that putting thoughts, feelings and emotions into words, on paper, either with poetry or in a short story format, can be both therapeutic and an incredibly effective method of self-help and healing. In this brave and uncompromising collection, 50 writers and poets in countries around the world including: Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Benin, Brazil, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malawi, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA, creatively explore the themes of suicide and self-harm, either from their own personal perspectives and experiences, or from the experiences of friends, family and people close by. An anthology on these subjects is undoubtedly thought-provoking and emotional, but also positive and uplifting too as, for many, putting their thoughts and feelings into words has set many on the road to creativity, healing and ultimately recovery.All profits from the sale of this book will go towards the development of Counselling Through Creativity, a not-for-profit organisation helping and supporting others through the creative use of words as a effective, therapeutic tool for self-help and healing.

The most accessible and joyous introduction to the world of poetry! The Random House Book of Poetry for Children offers both funny and illuminating poems for kids personally selected by the nation's first Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky. Featuring a wealth of beloved classic poems from the past and modern glittering gems, every child who opens this treasury will finda world of surprises and delights which will instill a lifelong love of poetry. Featuring 572 unforgettable poems, and over 400 one-of-a-kind illustrations from the Caldecott-winning illustrator of the Frog and Toad series, Arnold Lobel, this collection is, quite simply, the perfect way to introduce children to the world of poetry.

180 Days of Writing is an easy-to-use resource that provides fifth-grade students with practice in writing argument/opinion, informative/explanatory, and narratives pieces while also strengthening their language and grammar skills. Centered on high-interest themes, each two-week unit is aligned to one writing standard. Students interact with mentor texts during the first week and then apply their learning the next week by practicing the steps of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Daily practice pages make activities easy to prepare and implement as part of a classroom morning routine, at the beginning of each writing lesson, or as homework. Genre-specific rubrics and data-analysis tools provide authentic assessments that help teachers differentiate instruction. Develop enthusiastic and efficient writers through these standards-based activities correlated to College and Career Readiness and other state standards.