Per City Poems

I Speak of the City is the most extensive collection of poems ever assembled about New York. Beginning with an early piece by Jacob Steendam (from when the city was called New Amsterdam) and continuing through poems written in the aftermath of 9/11, this anthology features voices from more than a dozen countries. It includes two Nobel Prize recipients, fifteen Pulitzer Prize winners, and many other recognizable names, but it also preserves the work of long-neglected poets who celebrate the wild possibilities and colossal achievements of this epic city. Poets capture New York's major moments and transformations, writing of Hudson's arrival, Stuyvesant's prejudice, and the city's astonishing growth and gentrification. They speak of the thrills of a skyscraper's observation deck and the privations of teeming tenements. They portray the immigrant experience at Ellis Island and the decay, fear, and unexpected kindness on a subway ride. They take place on sidewalks, bridges, and docks; in taxis, buses, and ferries; and even within nature. The Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, and other familiar landmarks are recast through the prism of individual experience yet still reflect the seeming invincibility of New York and its status as a cultural magnet for the freethinking and experimental. While certain subjects and themes can be found in all urban verse, poems about New York have their own restless rhythm and ever-changing style, much like the city itself. Whether writing sonnets, epics, or experimental or imagistic verse, each of these poets has been inspired by the marvels and madness, humor and heartbreak of an enduring city.

A retrospective of 50 years worth of poems by New York poet John Godfrey.

A wonderful treasury containing poems about all kinds of people, for all kinds of people, written by all kinds of people.Including a whole host of poets such as Ted Hughes, Charles Causley, Christina Rossetti, Maya Angelou, and Roger McGough, this beautifully-illustrated treasury is a celebration of humans in all their diversity. Here, you'll find people sad and happy, busy and idle, young and old - engaged in allmanner of activities, at their best and at their worst.* Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark have edited a large number of classic poetry anthologies for OUP, including the best-selling One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children. * A fantastic selection of poetry, including both old favourites and less familiar poems, from a host of well-known names* Beautifully illustrated throughout in black and white by a range of artists including Laura Stoddart* Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark live in Oxfordshire

Equilibrium is articulated in this new collection: it is sun and horizon, the bridge between light and darkness, Jouvay and Las Lap, the book ends of the Carnival; and in the middle, the ordinariness of life and personal journey as the axis turns. "City Twilight" is an unknown steelband taking us through the unmasking of life in the bundles of the day's news dropped off at the news stand, fresh bread; a street sweeper after the commerce of the day, an evening landscape, language and experience."Dawad Philip is a national treasure who uses his many talents and creative skills as a writer, designer, artist, poet and entrepreneur to capture and distil in whichever medium or combination of outlets he chooses, the uniqueness of our still evolving national culture. His poetry captures the wealth and depth, the beauty and occasional bafflement, upside and downside of life and living in the enigma that is Trinidad. He is our Renaissance man holding a lamp and mirror before us, showing us who we are and what we can and should become. He is a friend, faithful and just, to his muse, his conscience and his multiple talents. "City Twilight" is not an echo so much as a variation of T.S. Eliot's theme from "The Four Quartets", We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time."-Tony DeyalDawad Philip: Author of Invocations (1980), A Mural by the Sea (2017) and Jayden and the King of the Brooklyn Carnival (with Yolanda Lezama-Clark, 2019). Dawad Philip's poems have appeared in Steppingstones, Bomb, Caribbean Voices, Poetry International, past simple, Voicing Our Vision and New Rain. The poem, "Licks" is a slightly revised version of the original (Invocations 1980). A 1990 recipient of New York State Fellowship on the Arts (Poetry), he has performed his works in the Caribbean, U.S., Canada, Latvia and Russia. Philip, who holds a Masters of Arts (Carnival Arts) degree from the University of Trinidad and Tobago, keeps active in the Carnival as a costume designer and mask maker. After living and working in Brooklyn for nearly four decades as a poet, journalist/editor and artist, Philip has since resettled in his hometown of San Fernando, Trinidad. "A Mural by the Sea" (2018), a film by the late playwright/filmmaker Tony Hall, is based on selected poems from the book of the same title.

“These poems are so generous, so bright and sharp, so funny and winning, they feel immense.” —Paul Guest “Erika Meitner is the new voice of intelligent and emotional poems. Good for poetry. Good for poetry lovers. Good for the rest of us, too.” — Nikki Giovanni Exploring themes of pregnancy, motherhood, ancestry, and life in the borderline slums of Washington, DC, the richly felt and adroit poetry of Erika Meitner’s Ideal Cities moves, mesmerizes, and delights. The work of an important emerging voice in contemporary American poetry—a winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series Prize as selected by Paul Guest—Ideal Cities gloriously perpetuates NPS’s long-standing tradition of promoting exceptional poetry from lesser-known poets.