The Beautiful Changes

A beautiful collection of verse––both light and dark, elegiac and affirmative––from one of our most admired poets. The title Nothing by Design is taken from Salter’s villanelle “Complaint for Absolute Divorce,” in which we’re asked to entertain the thought of a no-fault universe. The wary search for peace, personal and public, is a constant theme in poems as varied as “Our Friends the Enemy,” about the Christmas football match between German and British soldiers in 1914; “The Afterlife,” in which Egyptian tomb figurines labor to serve the dead; and “Voice of America,” where Salter returns to the Saint Petersburg of her exiled friend, the late Joseph Brodsky. A section of charming light verse serves as counterpoint to another series entitled “Bed of Letters,” in which Salter addresses the end of a long marriage. Artfully designed, with a highly intentional music, these poems movingly give form to the often unfathomable, yet very real, presence of nothingness and loss in our lives.

From the author of the bestselling Anam Cara comes a beautiful collection of blessings to help readers through both the everyday and the extraordinary events of their lives. John O’Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, has been widely praised for his gift of drawing on Celtic spiritual traditions to create words of inspiration and wisdom for today. In To Bless the Space Between Us, his compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight offers readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. O’Donohue looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory. Most profoundly, however, O’Donohue explains “blessing” as a way of life, as a lens through which the whole world is transformed. O’Donohue awakens readers to timeless truths and shows the power they have to answer contemporary dilemmas and ease us through periods of change.

"Wise old Vergil says in one of his Georgics, 'Praise large farms, stick to small ones,'" Robert Frost said. "Twenty acres are just about enough." Frost started out as a school teacher living the rural life of a would-be farmer, and later turned to farming full time when he bought a place of his own. After a sojourn in England where his first two books were published to critical acclaim, he returned to New England, acquired a new farm and became a rustic for much of the rest of his life. Frost claimed that all of his poetry was farm poetry. His deep admiration for Virgil's Georgics, or poems of rural life, inspired the creation of his own New England "georgics," his answer to the haughty 20th-century modernism that seemed certain to define the future of Western poetry. Like the "West-Running Brook" in his poem of the same name, Frost's poetry can be seen as an embodiment of contrariness.

Garrett Stewart begins The Deed of Reading with a memory of his first hesitant confrontation, as a teenager, with poetic density. In that early verbal challenge he finds one driving force of literature: to make language young again in its surprise, coming alive in each new event of reading. But what exactly happens in the textual encounter to make literary phrasing resonate so deeply with readers? To take the measure of literary writing, The Deed of Reading convenes diverse philosophic commentary on the linguistics of literature, with stress on the complementary work of Stanley Cavell and Giorgio Agamben. Sympathetic to recent ventures in form-attentive analysis but resisting an emphasis on so-called surface reading, Stewart explores not some new formalism but the internal pressures of language in formation, registering the verbal infrastructure of literary prose as well as verse. In this mode of "contextual" reading, the context is language itself. Literary phrasing, tapping the speech act’s own generative pulse, emerges as a latent philosophy of language in its own right, whereby human subjects, finding no secure place to situate themselves within language, settle for its taking place in, through, and between them. Stewart watches and hears this dynamics of wording played out in dozens of poems and novels over two centuries of English literary production—from Wordsworth and Shelley to Browning and Hopkins, from Poe and Dickens through George Eliot, Conrad, James, and on to Toni Morrison. The Deed of Reading offers a revisionary contribution to the ethic of verbal attention in the grip of "deep reading."

In 2002, Nightwood published Where the Words Come From: Canadian Poets in Conversation, a successful first-of-its-kind collection of interviews with literary luminaries like Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Avison, Patrick Lane, Lorna Crozier and P.K. Page, conducted by “the younger generation” of poets of the day. Sixteen years later, What the Poets Are Doing brings together two younger generations of poets to engage in conversations with their peers on modern-day poetics, politics and more. Together they explore the world of Canadian poetry in the new millennium: what's changed, what's endured and what's next. An exciting “turn of the century” has evolved into a century characterized by social and digital media, the Donald Trump presidency, #MeToo empowerment and scandal, and Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation. Should we look to our poets as our most articulate analysts and critics of these times? Are they competing with social media or at one with social media? Poets in Conversation: Elizabeth Bachinsky and Kayla Czaga Tim Bowling and Raoul Fernandes Dionne Brand and Souvankham Thammavongsa Marilyn Dumont and Katherena Vermette Sue Goyette and Linda Besner Steven Heighton and Ben Ladouceur Sina Queyras and Canisia Lubrin Armand Garnet Ruffo and Liz Howard Karen Solie and Amanda Jernigan Russell Thornton and Phoebe Wang Afterword co-written by Nick Thran and Sue Sinclair

Here is the eagerly awaited new edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry brought completely up to date and dramatically expanded by poet David Lehman. It is a rich, capacious volume, featuring the work of more than 200 poets-almost three times as many as the 1976 edition. With a succinct and often witty head note introducing each author, it is certain to become the definitive anthology of American poetry for our time. Lehman has gathered together all the works one would expect to find in a landmark collection of American poetry, from Whitman's Crossing Brooklyn Ferry to Stevens's The Idea of Order at Key West, and from Eliot's The Waste Land to Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But equally important, the editor has significantly expanded the range of the anthology. The book includes not only writers born since the previous edition, but also many fine poets overlooked in earlier editions or little known in the past but highly deserving of attention. The anthology confers legitimacy on the Objectivist poets; the so-called Proletariat poets of the 1930s; famous poets who fell into neglect or were the victims of critical backlash (Edna St. Vincent Millay); poets whose true worth has only become clear with the passing of time (Weldon Kees). Among poets missing from Richard Ellmann's 1976 volume but published here are W. H. Auden, Charles Bukowski, Donald Justice, Carolyn Kizer, Kenneth Koch, Stanley Kunitz, Emma Lazarus, Mina Loy, Howard Moss, Lorine Niedecker, George Oppen, James Schuyler, Elinor Wylie, and Louis Zukosky. Many more women are represented: outstanding poets such as Josephine Jacobsen, Josephine Miles, May Swenson. Numerous African-American poets receive their due, and unexpected figures such as the musicians Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Robert Johnson have a place in this important work. This stunning collection redefines the great canon of American poetry from its origins in the 17th century right up to the present. It is a must-have anthology for anyone interested in American literature and a book that is sure to be consulted, debated, and treasured for years to come.

Give yourself a real extreme makeover from the inside out! Is all the stress of taking care of your family, home, and work starting to show on your face? Is your waistline increasing while your energy and patience levels decrease? Are you ready to make a change but aren’t sure how to do it? A Beautiful New You is about more than getting the right haircut or dressing to look ten pounds thinner. A former model turned beauty expert who rescued herself from being overweight, frumpy, and tired all the time, Laura DuPriest is a source of invaluable advice for anyone who wants to improve herself, just as she did—without cosmetic surgery! She knows firsthand what it’s like to let yourself (and your appearance) get lost in the grind of daily life. In her hand-holding inspirational guide, Laura reaches out to women just like you who are ready to reconnect with the person they truly want to be. For years Laura has made it her mission, through her salon and weekly TV makeovers, to help hundreds of women who know the pressures of today’s fast-paced life and have little time and energy to devote to their own well-being, but want to look and feel better. Included in A Beautiful New You are the heartwarming stories from women whom Laura has helped, along with their astonishing before and after makeover photos. Just like these women who have embraced Laura’s six-step program, you too can feel empowered to change and improve every aspect of your life and become a beautiful new you. •Does your exterior show that you take pride in yourself? Your self-esteem is communicated to others through your appearance. •Come up with a dream look by collecting photos from magazines that will help you stay focused on the new you. Keep a journal of your moods and thoughts to recognize just what is holding you back and what is keeping you going. •Create a simple makeup routine, allow time for exercise, and go to bed earlier—the time you spend on yourself will benefit everyone around you. • Give yourself permission to be the best version of yourself: happy, confident, and proud. Treat yourself with the same care and kindness as you give to others around you.You deserve to look and feel beautiful! Laura shows you how to reclaim your beauty—both inner and outer. Each step features real-life makeovers and moving personal stories of women who have transformed their appearance—and discovered a whole new positive attitude in the process. Stop wasting time making excuses—let A Beautiful New You help you bring out your best.