Poems From Heaven

Winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, selected by Claudia Rankine. Kemi Alabi’s transcendent debut reimagines the poetic and cultural traditions from which it is born, troubling the waters of some of our country’s central and ordained fictions—those mythic politics of respectability, resilience, and redemption. Instead of turning to a salvation that has been forced upon them, Alabi turns to the body and the earth as sites of paradise defined by the pleasure and possibility of Black, queer fugitivity. Through tender love poems, righteous prayers, and vital provocations, we see the colonizers we carry within ourselves being laid to rest. Against Heaven is a praise song made for the flames of a burning empire—a freedom dream that shapeshifts into boundless multiplicities for the wounds made in the name of White supremacy and its gods. Alabi has written an astonishing collection of magnificent range, commanding the full spectrum of the Black, queer spirit’s capacity for magic, love, and ferocity in service of healing—the highest power there is.

From the Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature The contemporary Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature and has a prestigious worldwide reputation. Robert Bly, a longtime friend and confidant of Tranströmer's, as well as one of his first translators, has carefully chosen and translated the finest of Tranströmer's poems to create this cherished and invaluable collection. Contents Introduction: "Upward into the Depths" by Robert Bly 1 From 17 Poems (1954) Secrets on the Road (1958) The Half-Finished Heaven (1962) Evening—Morning Storm The Man Awakened by a Song above His Roof Track Kyrie After the Attack Balakirev's Dream (1905) The Couple Allegro Lamento The Tree and the Sky A Winter Night Dark Shape Swimming The Half-Finished Heaven Nocturne 2 From Resonance and Footprints (1966) Night Vision (1970) Open and Closed Space From an African Diary Morning Bird Songs Summer Grass About History After a Death Under Pressure Slow Music Out in the Open Solitude Breathing Space July The Open Window s26Preludes The Bookcase Outskirts Going with the Current Traffic Night Duty A Few Moments The Name Standing Up 3 From Pathways (1973) Truth Barriers (1978) Elegy The Scattered Congregation Snow-Melting Time, '66 Further In Late May December Evening, '72 Seeing through the Ground Guard Duty Along the Lines (Far North) At Funchal (Island of Madeira) Calling Home Citoyens For Mats and Laila After a Long Dry Spell A Place in the Woods Street Crossing Below Freezing Start of a Late Autumn Novel From the Winter of 1947 The Clearing Schubertiana 4 From The Wild Market Square (1983) For the Living and the Dead (1989) Grief Gondola (1996) From March '79 Fire Script Black Postcards Romanesque Arches The Forgotten Commander Vermeer The Cuckoo The Kingdom of Uncertainty Three Stanzas Two Cities Island Life, 1860 April and Silence Grief Gondola #2

More than a decade after Jack Gilbert’s The Great Fires, this highly anticipated new collection shows the continued development of a poet who has remained fierce in his avoidance of the beaten path. In Refusing Heaven, Gilbert writes compellingly about the commingled passion, loneliness, and sometimes surprising happiness of a life spent in luminous understanding of his own blessings and shortcomings: “The days and nights wasted . . . Long hot afternoons / watching ants while the cicadas railed / in the Chinese elm about the brevity of life.” Time slows down in these poems, as Gilbert creates an aura of curiosity and wonder at the fact of existence itself. Despite powerful intermittent griefs–over the women he has parted from or the one lost to cancer (an experience he captures with intimate precision)–Gilbert’s choice in this volume is to “refuse heaven.” He prefers this life, with its struggle and alienation and delight, to any paradise. His work is both a rebellious assertion of the call to clarity and a profound affirmation of the world in all its aspects. It braces the reader in its humanity and heart.

A follow-up to the author's highly acclaimed Kyrie, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, offers an intimate exploration of the obstacles and joys of modern life.

Poetry is the greatest literary form of ancient Persia and modern Iran, and the 14th-century poet known as Hafiz is its preeminent master. This collection is derived from Hafiz's Divan (collected poems), a classic of Sufism.

Heaven in Ordinary is like a love affair with poetry that engages with religious questions, for good or ill, concerned with five poets who are haunted by God. Poets, in times of great faith and times of doubt, have expressed for us their sense of both the presence and the absence of God in language that is sometimes almost sacramental in its weight of beauty, love, fear, anger or despair. The poets considered here all relate, in some way, to the traditions of Anglicanism through the centuries, reflecting both a common humanity and a wide breadth of human experience as it struggles with God. Heaven in Ordinary is deliberately autobiographical in approach, as it is grounded in David Jasper's own lifetime experience of reading poetry since his school years, and over four decades as a priest. The poets he so beautifully discusses have related both positively and negatively to the Christian faith and the Anglican tradition. Some are deeply religious, others are haunted by God and the divine mystery.

Poems from Heaven offers explanations of diverse messages and principles from God's word using simple poems. The message in each poem is brought into better perspective using supporting biblical passages and discussion. The poems are grouped in four general categories that serve as chapter divisions: Inspire, Salvation, Scripture, and Agape. The simple Christian poetry of author Uzoaga Kelechukwu will inspire you and touch your heart. I am If I was inanimate Then I would be God's sanctuary Sanctified by the Blood of the Lamb I would be a vessel unto honour Fit for the master's use I would be a garment, sparkling white Flowing softly in the wind I would be a beam of bright light Soft on the eyes, but still piercing the darkness I would be sounds of joy, praises and worship Sweet music to God's ears If I was an animal I would be an eagle, friend of the sun Soaring highest, perplexing minds I would be a dove, white and pure The Holy Spirit's best bird I would be a lion, strong and stately Defying fear, turning away from no one I would be an ant, prudent and disciplined Teaching men to be wise I would be a lamb, gentle and meek But I am a spirit, born of the Spirit

The writer never having an interest in reading or writing poetry suddenly after the loss of a nine month old grandchild Sarita to a tragic accident began hearing a beautiful subtle voice that would not stop until the voice was written. The writings were poems that delivered a message of love and compassion to humanity. The first messages heard were those of people who had died and the words were in first person as narrated by the heard voice. I began to wonder if my own death was imminent and I was to leave these messages to my children, when the fear subsided, Babies From Heaven started to be heard, these are babies coming from heaven and telling their parents of their arrival, then All of us in Between for mothers, fathers' sons' daughters, and all of humanity. Each poem was voiced in it's entirety with the urgence for the writer to put on paper. Every word is exactly as it was heard, the message is of love and compassion touching the hearts of all who read them. The name Messages From Heaven is what they truly are voiced by angels to ease the pain and grief of the writer. The poems since 1994 have been used to give to our hospice client's family, which they treasure. Recently a person asked me if I beleived in God and when I answered yes, he asked me if I did not think that God had given me these poems to share with humanity, immediately I decided to have them published.