POETRY MONTH | Weekly Highlights
It's POETRY MONTH, which for some people is the cruelest month of the year, breeding black turtle necks out of moth-eaten closets, mixing casual coffee drinkers and poets at pop up slam competitions, stirring glassy-eyed shoppers with sprung rhythm. At Manda Group, we love poetry month and want to help you choose the perfect haiki or meta-poem to buy, so for the next couple of weeks we will be unveiling upcoming and newly released titles! Here's the first few GEMS:
100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda Exile Editions ISBN 9781550963878 $24.95
Forty years after Pablo Neruda’s death, this compilation of his sonnets, unlike previous translations, captures the true spirit and verbal dexterity of his lesser-known genre. Pablo Neruda is still one of the most widely read, influential and beloved 20th-century poets. He was a Nobel Laureate, famous for his politically engaged lyrics, who also wrote these bold and sensual sonnets. In this new edition, the poems are followed by three essays on reading Neruda and his poetic effect by the notable poets and translators A. F. Moritz, Beatriz Hausner, and Toronto’s Poet Laureate (2012–2015) George Elliott Clarke, as well as a new afterword by the translator, questions for discussion, and recommended readings.
Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting by Kevin Powers Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 9780316401081 $25.00
National Book Award finalist, Iraq war veteran, novelist and poet Kevin Powers creates a deeply affecting portrait of a life shaped by war. Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting captures the many moments that comprise a soldier's life: driving down the Texas highway; waiting for the unknown in the dry Iraq heat; writing a love letter; listening to a mother recount her dreams. Written with evocative language and discernment, Powers's poetry strives to make sense of the war and its echoes through human experience.
Just as The Yellow Birds was hailed as the "first literary masterpiece produced by the Iraq war," this collection will make its mark as a powerful, enduring work (Los Angeles Times).
Blue Sonoma by Jane Munro Brick Books ISBN 9781926829883 $20.00
Award-winning poet Jane Munro draws on her well-honed talents to address what Eliot called “the gifts reserved for age.” A beloved partner’s crossing into Alzheimer’s is at the heart of this book, and his “battered blue Sonoma” is an evocation of numerous other crossings: between empirical reportage and meditative apprehension, dreaming and wakefulness, Eastern and Western poetic traditions. Rich in both pathos and sharp shards of insight, Munro’s wisdom here is deeply embedded, shot through with moments of wit and candour. In the tradition of Taoist poets like Wang Wei and Po-Chu-i, her sixth and best book opens a wide poetic space, and renders difficult conditions with the lightest of touches. Grey wood twisted tight within the framework of the tree – impossible to snap off, forged as it dries.And in me, parts I can’t imagine myself without – silvering. ~from “The live arbutus carries dead branches…”
Check our blog next week for more highlights!