Family Poetry

In his debut full length collection, Junious ‘Jay’ Ward dives deep into the formation of self. Composition interrogates the historical perceptions of Blackness and biracial identity as documented through a Southern Lens. Utilizing a variety of poetic forms, Ward showcases to his audiences an innovative approach as he unflinchingly explores the way language, generational trauma, loss, and resilience shape us into who we are, the stories we carry, and what we will inevitably pass on.

In a working-class family that considers sensitivity a “fatal diagnosis,” how does a child grow up to be a poet? What happens when a body “meant to bend & breed” opts not to, then finds itself performing the labor of care regardless? Why do we think our “common griefs” so singular? Bad Hobby is a hard-earned meditation on questions like these—a dreamscape speckled with swans, ghosts, and weather updates.

The poems in Yanyi’s latest book suggest that we enter and exit our old selves like homes. We look through the windows and recognize some former aspect of our lives that is both ours and not ours. We long for what we had even as we recognize that we can no longer live there. Yanyi conjures the beloved both within and without us: the beloved we believe we know, the beloved who is never the person we imagine, and the beloved who threatens to erase us even as we stand before them.

New dual language edition in both Spanish and English. I Dreamed You is a love poem, a testament to the gift that every child is to those who care for him or her and to the unbreakable bond between them. I Dreamed You gives a voice to the feelings so difficult to express and so important to share. Award-winning and beloved children's author Justine Avery thoughtfully, reverently expresses the sentiments behind welcoming a child into our lives, whether we're a grandparent, adopting parent, step-parent, sibling, or anyone else blessed with a cherished young one.

Am I My Mother's Child is a poem about a daughter questioning her maternal lineage while experiencing cruelty from mother.

Lloyd Jones was seven years old the first time he climbed high into a grandstand to watch rugby with his father. The experience was baptismal. From his new elevated perspective Jones believed he could see everything that mattered – a field of play that rolled out, green with promise, from suburban New Zealand to the wider world. The grandstand is a guiding metaphor for these questing narrative poems that reach back into childhood and forward into the life of a writer constantly experimenting with form and voice.

An "unleashed love song" to her late grandmother, Nickole Brown's collection brings her brassy, bawdy, tough-as-new-rope grandmother to life. With hair teased to Jesus, mile-long false eyelashes, and a white Cadillac Eldorado with atomic-red leather seats, Fanny is not your typical granny rocking in a chair. Instead, think of a character that looks a lot like Eva Gabor in Green Acres, but darkened with a shadow of Flannery O'Connor.

When a combination of words and emotions create rhymes, then a melodious poem is born. This poem booklet consists of soulful poems, short rhymes, and quotations about an unrecognized angel in the family. Mother is a precious gem sent by heaven. This book is scribbled to honor all the mothers of this world. A mother's love for her children is depicted through various poems. The short rhymes and quotations are portraying the angel who makes a family bloom. This chapbook could make a beautiful Mother's Day gift.

Adnan Zakir loves table tennis. He's also colorblind, left-handed, and has a fondness for the aviation alphabet. He's super close with his sister, Aaliyah, who is a great dancer and memorizer of Quran, and he loves his little toddler brother Rizwan, who only wants to grow up and play table tennis like his big brother. All Adnan dreams of is making it to the Ultimate Table Tennis Championship in Florida, and if he qualifies for the tournament, he knows he will get to spend the Eid holiday with his cousins!

A book of poetry that describes what my daughter went through the last few years of her life and memorial poems from myself and her sisters.

Raise a glass, and sample what's been cooked up in this A Crock of Sundries, Volume One. A pinch of family traditions. A dash of the teenage years. Toss in a few alcohol-infused musings. Top it off with a bit of cheeky satire, and some pensive prose and poetry for a fun literary romp through genres. This single-author, multi-genre anthology by Timothy R. Baldwin is sure to have a bit of something for everyone. So kick back in your favorite reading spot, pour yourself a drink, and settle in for an evening of diverse entertainment.

Through entrancing narration of essay and poetry accompanied by soothing sound effects, Nora Nneka (Dr. Nora Ekeanya) details some of the traumatic events that led to her estrangement from her mother and decision to pursue a career in psychiatry.

c a r v e d, Kate Mapother's first collection of poetry, explores life and loss in its varied dimensions. At once gut-wrenching and hopeful, these poems take the listener by the hand and heart through themes of sexuality, God, love, grief, and family. The writing is rich in imagery and substance, leaving no doubt in the listener's mind about Mapother's ability to plumb the depths of hard emotion, then land you somewhere soft. These poems don't pretend to know. They simply witness.

Poetry for every listener. Bibliophile has three sections. Poems about family fill "The Tie that Binds." Poetry about art is the theme of "A Thousand Words." The book ends with a section of humorous poems, "Flights of Fancy."

In We Inherit What the Fires Left, award-winning poet William Evans embarks on a powerful new collection that explores the lived experience of race in the American suburbs and what dreams and injuries are passed from generation to generation. Fall under the spell of Evans' boldly intimate, wise, and emotionally candid voice in these urgent, electrifying poems. This eloquent collection explores not only what these inheritances are composed of, but what price the bearer must pay for such legacies, and the costly tolls exacted on both body and spirit.

With the same brilliant wit and biting realism that made Love Poems for Married People, Love Poems for People with Children, and Love Poems for Anxious People such hits, John Kenney is back with a brand new collection that tackles the hilarity of life in the office. From waiting in line for the printer and revising spreadsheet after spreadsheet, to lukewarm coffee, office politics, and the daily patterns of your most annoying - and lovable - coworkers, Kenney masterfully captures the warmth and humor of working the "9 to 5" in today's modern era.

Bestselling author and mom blogger Bunmi Laditan vulnerably shares the prayers she's prayed for her children as inspiration for your own prayer life. Refreshingly relatable, bravely honest, and deeply heartwarming, Help Me, God, I'm a Parent meets you right where you're at and gives voice to the thoughts everyone--even you--has about parenthood that they are afraid to say out loud.

From the simplicity of poetry from a childlike, innocent point of view, Christine Madline Ellsworth brings readers through a series of poems, both complex and often openly confessional, to a conclusion that delivers them onto yet another path. Here, then, is the process of life from a singularly female vista: moving from one stage to the next—though rarely smoothly or easily, and not without a bump or two. Beginning with the assassination of JFK, first love, and on through abusive marriages, forgiveness threaded with current health, social media and environmental concerns, transformation ...

The title poem, a series of sonnet-sized Zoom meetings - a classroom, a memorial service, an encounter with a new baby in the family - finds humor and pathos in our age of social distancing and technology-induced proximity. Salter shows too how imagination collapses time and space: In “Island Diaries”, the pragmatist Robinson Crusoe meets on the beach a shipwrecked dreamer from an earlier century, Shakespeare’s Prospero.

Family is one topic that Lindsey wants to avoid. She loves her family more than anything, but no one else understands their dynamic. So what if her family fights or the next meal is a big question mark? That’s all normal in the Holdermann house. When Lindsey begins a friendship with Baylee, things start to change. Her views of herself and her family all come into question. What once was so simple has Lindsey struggling to find her identity and her place in her family.