Poetry Pokey

Rachael Goodman thought she had life pretty well figured out after she finished law school, took a job as a Navy lawyer and became a JAG lieutenant, junior grade. Now she's not so sure as she goes to her first duty station in the Philippines and learns the truth behind the recruiting pitch "It's not just a job, it's an adventure." While keeping the world safe for democracy, Rachel is finding out first hand that sailors and Marines have a well-deserved reputation. But while she's keeping the world safe, who's going to keep her safe? As one of the few single American women on a base with lots of sailors and Marines a very long way from home, she's getting lots of attention. And the new love of her life, a Navy SEAL named BB, is giving her a quick education in romance and military life. There's lots of adventure as Rachael navigates here way through courtrooms, barrooms and the world, finds out about the Navy, Navy SEALS, San Miguel beer, and gains perspective into affairs of the heart. Rachael has lots of growing up to do and lots of new experiences are in store. If only she can survive without becoming just another lawyer joke!

Kath Rutledge is settling in as the owner of the Weaver’s Cat, a fiber and fabric shop in Blue Plum, Tennessee. But nothing, not even the ghost haunting her shop, prepares her for the mystery that will leave the whole town spinning.... It’s time for Blue Plum’s annual historical festival, and everyone—including Kath and her spunky fiber and needlework group, TGIF—is getting in on the action. Expert spinners are being gathered, and a businessman has approached Kath about using the second-floor windows of her store for part of a reenactment. But the reenactment ends in real-life bloodshed when local baker Reva Louise Snapp is shot—with a bullet from a modern-day gun. Kath has her theories about who wanted to end Reva Louise’s life. But there’s also talk of a sniper stalking Blue Plum, and Kath’s shop is suspected to be the murderer’s hideout. Now Kath, her TGIF pals, and the gloomy ghost, Geneva, must unravel the mystery quickly, or someone else might be left hanging by a thread....

These sixteen stories and fourteen poems will send you on an amazing journey of artistry. The creativity and imagination will dazzle the reader with vivid adventuring into many diverse genres: from humorous works such as The Wautowma Worm Moon Festival Talent Show, to fine romantic pieces such as It Happened in the Library; the reader will be moved to profound emotion while reading, Drinking Banana Milk at Matt Marshs and Traipsing to Auschwitz. The Usual Bohemian provides a fine, literary and refreshing style that will find a place near the top of contemporary American fiction.

Matching a fine (and often funny) imagination to a sharp, plainspoken intelligence, the poems in How I Got Lost So Close to Home move through familiar landscapes: the busy intersections of streets and parks, the changing topographies of self and family, and the hard won territory of beauty in an imperfect world. With their remarkable clarity, Dryansky's poems make us feel as though we too are present in her landscapes, and not just looking at them. The gift of these poems is their exacting detail, their compassion without sentimentality, and their ability to draw us into what the poet ultimately calls "home," a fluid awareness of the self that must be returned to again and again.

A comprehensive and scholarly review of contemporary British and Irish Poetry With contributions from noted scholars in the field, A Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2015 offers a collection of writings from a diverse group of experts. They explore the richness of individual poets, genres, forms, techniques, traditions, concerns, and institutions that comprise these two distinct but interrelated national poetries. Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companion to Literature and Culture series, this book contains a comprehensive survey of the most important contemporary Irish and British poetry. The contributors provide new perspectives and positions on the topic. This important book: Explores the institutions, histories, and receptions of contemporary Irish and British poetry Contains contributions from leading scholars of British and Irish poetry Includes an analysis of the most prominent Irish and British poets Puts contemporary Irish and British poetry in context Written for students and academics of contemporary poetry, A Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2015 offers a comprehensive review of contemporary poetry from a wide range of diverse contributors.