Poetry Books - Page 11

Cajun Night Before Christmas

Trosclair

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Cajun Night before Christmas 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has been a Christmas tradition in my family for many years. We are Cajuns and love this story. The illustrations are well drawn and bring this story to life for people of all ages.

Family tradition 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I grew up in New Orleans and my dad would read this to me every year. After many years and many moves, we lost our original. I was thrilled to find this on Amazon and I purchased it for my dad as a Christmas gift. What a wonderful sight to see him reading it to my two sons this Christmas Eve!

Good Cajun Christmas Tale 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just what I wanted, the only problem I encountered, wasn't with the book but with the delivery of the item. I ordered it on the 7th and it arrived on the 24th. Amazon was very helpful in solving my problem. I will continue to place orders with them. Thanks again , my granddaughter loves her book.

Great as a curiosity-- 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Who dat climbin' up on my roof? Who dat? Who dat? Who dat fallin' down de chimby? Who dat? Who dat?

Oh it's ol' St. Nick in his fine muskrat suit. Dat who! Dat who! Wid his gators pulling that skiff across de bayou: Gaston, Tiboy, Pierre, Alcee, Ninette, Suzette, Celeste, Renee.
"To de top o' de porch
To de top o' de wall
Make crawl, alligator,
An' be sho' you don' fall."

Bottom line: Seeing dos gators crawl up dat house gibs me de creeps, sho'! Even though I taught at a school for 25 years where the mascot was de Alligator (we called him Gator!) Our school was in de swamp! Know what I mean?

Here's how "Cajun Night Before Christmas" begins:
"'Twas the night before Christmas
An' all t'ru de house
Dey don't a t'ing pass
Not even a mouse.
De chirren been nezzle
Good snug on de flo'
An' Mama pass de pepper
T'ru de crack on de do'."

(Translation:
The children are nestled
Snug on the floor (cause we po' folks, don' got no beds)
And Mama has to put paper in the cracks in the wooden slat doors (cause we po' and live in shacks out in de swamp).

But we happy. Mama's cookin' up de gumbo in de fireplace. It's a big kettle hanging from a hook. When St. Nick comes down de chimby in his muskrat suit, he decide he don' wan' go back up de chimby, so he go out de do'.

Note: De pages wid the gators creepin' onto de porch and crawlin' up onto de roof is downrat scary. But den dos gators b'longs to St. Nick so dey allrat.

"An' I hear him shout loud
As a splashin' he go
'Merry Christmas to all
'Til I saw you some mo'!"

I knowed dat people far far away t'ink all de peoples dat live in de State of Louisienne be Cajuns, but dat not tru. Dos peoples dat live from de middlin' part of de state on down south, dos folks be Cajuns. We peoples dat live north of Alexandria, we are rednecks. Den der's de black folks who live all over.

Traditionally, people from North Louisiana are the Scots-Irish-English and Protestants that came across from North and South Carolina and settled in the South and on into East Texas. Cajuns, or Acadians, came from Canada (from France) and are Catholic and settled in the swampy areas of South Louisiana and immigrated then all through the southern part of the state, not just the swamps. You know where black folks came from.

"Trosclair" created this beloved Christmas classic in 1973. It is very popular in North Louisiana, as well as South Louisiana--we are ONE state, even if we bicker amongst ourselves like families.

Editorial Review:

A version in Cajun dialect of the famous poem, "The Night Before Christmas," set in a Louisiana bayou.

2009 Poet's Market

Editors of Writers Digest Books

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best Advice For Marketing 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Being a new Poet, I have found this book, the "Bible" to be used for publishing poetry. May you continue, with even more advice, then previous publications. Be Number #1 in the publishing world, for Poet's.
T. R. Harmon

Editorial Review:

2009 Poet's Market gives readers all the information necessary to research markets and submit poetry for publication. In addition to market listings, poets will find guidance for preparing and submitting manuscripts, identifying markets, relating to editors, and more. Plus, the book includes additional listings for conferences, workshops, organizations for poets, print and online resources, and the latest trends in poetry writing and publishing.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Verison with an Introduction (Penguin Classics)

Anonymous

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The tale of the evolution of storytelling that reveals shared mythology in religions 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This version is a very popular adaptation of the Gilgamesh story because it contains N. K. Sandars' crucial introduction which is just as important as the translation itself because it includes information about the discovery of the tablets in Assyria dating back to the third millennium BC and then goes on to explain the difficulties that scholars have had in rediscovering the story from these artifacts and how during this long laborious translation process found themselves actively engaged in evolving the story, and thus the mythology, which had developed from other sources and had certainly influenced ancient hero epics that proceeded it. There is no one version of Gilgamesh. There are very many. Having a good introduction like this makes reading the story even better because we understand its significance beyond being just a very old fable.

The story of the translation of the epic of Gilgamesh is every bit as important as the epic itself and maybe more so because of its relevance to modern questions about the authenticity of the accounts held by popular traditional sacred texts. It is impossible to ignore the resemblance the epic of Gilgamesh has to Greek mythology as well as to the Judeo-Christian Islamic religions. Elements of the story such as Gilgamesh being part god part man, the flood story which is vertically identical to the one in Genesis and the underlying quest for immortality will peak interest and is probably the main reason why most people want to read the epic of Gilgamesh. The discovery of the tablets only increased popular scholarly opinions that religions have their roots in mythology and here is yet more evidence to back that position. Thus the epic of Gilgamesh and the story behind it is an essential classical text for ancient storytelling and how they evolve with time through the civilizations that come in contact with them. The Epic is not just Gilgamesh but the gradual progression of important themes in life that humans deal with by developing these legends and fables.

Sandar's work also contains an important treatment of the story and an explanation of the role of the gods which are essentials to understanding what the story is about. Gilgamesh is hard to read without these initiations because the era and the setting in which the story was written must be dealt with or else the plot which contains abundant and rapid interactions between the gods, their attributes and the consequences, will not make any sense to the reader. The ancient ways, and we are talking ancient going back some 5000 years at least, are not our ways. Here gods are superabundant and are responsible for every aspect of life and with an outcome, such as the setting of the sun by scorpions, there is also a god who is bringing the fiery ball down into the underworld where two more gods are there to catch it and who influence our lives somehow.

Gilgamesh is another world, almost alien, giving us a glimpse into how our ancestor's explained themselves and the world they found themselves in. It goes to show how far our modern understanding of why we are the way we are and why things are the way they are, has gone.

Editorial Review:

Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal life. A timeless tale of morality, tragedy and pure adventure, "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is a landmark literary exploration of man's search for immortality.

A cup of Christmas tea

Tom Hegg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Still as charming as ever... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I think of this book as an adult "christmas book". I have had a copy for some years and purchased this one to accompany a Spode Christmas "tea pot and cup for one" I gave to my mother. The 25th Anniversary Edition is a celebration of a book that will never go out of style and is a perennial reminder of gracious traditions and feelings that are the heart's treasures.

This book inspires me anew every Christmas 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A friend recommended this book to me several years ago, and when I read it, I was moved to tears. Since that time, I have given countless copies to friends and family because I want to share the message that I received from it with everyone I know. The text is brief, but very descriptive, so I could picture in my mind the events that the authors were describing. The message that I received is that monetary gifts are not as important as the gift of time that we spend with others; so often we set out to do things for others because we feel obligated, and in the end are more blessed than the person who was the object of our attention. This is truly a wonderful Christmas story to read again and again!

Editorial Review:

This heartwarming poem brings the true meaning of Christmas joyously to life. Reluctantly, in the midst of the Christmas rush, a man decides to go visit his ailing Great Aunt, but while there, peace and love and wonderful Christmas spirit surround the two of them as they share a cup of Christmas tea.

Good Poems

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good Enough Poems 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I've always enjoyed Keillor's "Writer's Almanac", a five minute PBS program that comes on at 9am where I live. GK's trademark soothing voice, a homey-type poem, historical tidbits and birthdays of literary figures: a little food for thought to start the day. "Good Poems" is an anthology of 433 pages of these poems--chosen from the few thousand which he has read on the radio.

The definition of "Good Poems" for this blue paperback volume is that they read well on the radio--somehow engaging our attention, despite the frying of eggs and bacon, or whatever else we are doing--and that they are memorable because they have a narrative quality, they tell a story. "Good Poems" should be accessible and make a lasting impression. You will not find here esoteric brain-busters such as [most of] T.S. Eliot's works. Also missing are poems of ancient masters, such as Rumi, or translations of masterpieces from other countries. Sadly. The vast majority of GK's Good Poems come from 20th Century United States, with occasional dipping into the 19th century.

If you like folksy, sometimes even sentimental poetry, then these are "Good Poems". If you love Emily Dickenson, for example, and Robert Frost and Robert Bly. If you don't mind a folk song-poem such as "Home on the Range". But even Charles Bukowski hits the mark with his straight forward poems.

I like Mary Oliver and James Wright, who are also represented in this volume. In fact, Wright's "A Blessing"--about the Indian ponies--is one of all-time my favorite poems. Mary Oliver's "The Geese" is wonderful, too. (As an aside: my favorite Mary Oliver poem is in "Poem a Day" vol. 2, another great anthology which I am currently reading. That book has a bit different flavor--broader and deeper, I think. You might like it also--I'll post a review about it soon)

The "Good Poems" are arranged into 19 chapters--categorized by GK. The title and the name of the poet are at the top of each work, but not the date. Be sure to read the mini-bios about the authors at the end of the book; many of them are quite interesting. It would have been helpful if Keillor had referenced the page numbers of the poems in the bio section, so that you could read the bio, and turn to poem(s) by that writer. But you do get 400+ uncut pages, with a fold-over flap on each side, which is useful for holding your place. And on the back flap the coolest,weirdest black-and-white portrait of Garrison Keiller is printed.

"Be well, do good work and keep in touch", Garrison.

Editorial Review:

Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by Keillor for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m."

Good Poems includes verse about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.

The House on Fortune Street: A Novel (P.S.)

Margot Livesey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It seems like mutual good luck for Abigail Taylor and Dara MacLeod when they meet at St. Andrews University and, despite their differences, become fast friends. Years later they remain an unlikely pair. Abigail, an actress who confidently uses her charms both on- and offstage, believes herself immune to love. Dara, a counselor, is convinced that everyone is inescapably marked by childhood; she throws herself into romantic relationships with frightening intensity. Yet now each seems to have found "true love"—another stroke of luck?—Abigail with her academic boyfriend, Sean, and Dara with a tall, dark violinist named Edward, who literally falls at her feet. But soon after Dara moves into Abigail's downstairs apartment, trouble threatens both relationships, and their friendship.

For Abigail it comes in the form of an anonymous letter to Sean claiming that she's been unfaithful; for Dara, a reconciliation with her distant father, Cameron, who left the family when Dara was ten, reawakens complicated feelings. Through four ingeniously interlocking narratives—Sean's, Cameron's, Dara's, and Abigail's—we gradually understand how these characters' lives are shaped by both chance and determination. Whatever the source, there is no mistaking the tragedy that strikes the house on Fortune Street.

"Everyone," claims Abigail, "has a book or a writer who's the key to their life." As this statement reverberates through each of the narratives, Margot Livesey skillfully reveals how luck—good and bad—plays a vital role in our lives, and how the search for truth can prove a dangerous undertaking. Written with her characteristic elegance and wit, The House on Fortune Street offers a surprisingly provocative detective story of the heart.

Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West

Various

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Gift! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is an exhilarating book! It was my favorite gift to give this past Christmas, with a wonderful response. Half the poets are Sufi, and I was unfamiliar with most of them; the other half are Catholic mystics, all of whom I know, but I did not know these poems. I am hoping that a scholar of Catholic mystics might review here and let me know how much of the translation is wishful thinking. The author seemed to reserve that right.

Editorial Review:

In this transcendent collection, Daniel Ladinsky-best known for his gifted and best-selling translations of the great Sufi poet Hafiz-brings together the timeless work of twelve of the world's finest spiritual writers, six from the East and six from the West. Once again Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating inspiring, profound, and playful versions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi's joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis's loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir's wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa's sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Hafiz-these and other spiritual writers considered to be "conduits of the divine" make up this rich and luminous collection of "love poems from God."

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Enduring Master of the Macabre 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, died October 7, 1849.

What is it that makes an author famous? I don't mean famous in the sense a news article reports that "Jack Greylea's novels sold 15 million copies last year," but in the sense that he is thought of as being profound, and seminal. That he is quoted, and scholars analyse his works, and he is looked upon as being the original voice of his style, or the font from which many imitators have drawn inspiration.

Edgar Allan Poe is one such. The very hint of his name calls up images of midnight graveyards, of crumbling mansions lit by wax candles, the home of strange and tormented aristocrats, till the description "Poe-like" can draw as vivid a picture in our minds as "elephant-like."

Yet his output was not great. Basically a short story writer and poet, he produced only one full-length novel, which received more censure than praise, and which very few people today can name. Without wishing to run him down as an author (what he did, he did well, but what he did well, was to be Poe) he was a limited writer, and all of his works over twenty-two years can be contained in one thickish book.
So what is the secret of Poe, whereby a scanty writer becomes the cult-centre of a world of horror that carries his own stamp? It lies I think in two things.

Not to place these two in any order of importance as regards his continuing fame - I leave this to you - but I would say....
Firstly, that it was his choice of subject and execution of it. The mournful, weird and macabre, in which man becomes little more than an instrument of darkness, and that usually the worst darkness, that which wells up from within, whose black light shows us as being not the pawns of evil, but the source of evil itself. But to seize on this idea - or any other idea - as inspiration is nothing, merely the starting point from which the quill hits the paper. It is in the execution of his vision that Poe's genius emerges. Not with a great deal of subtlety, nor a much complexity, but with great and disciplined fixity on the horror of his intentions, Poe moves relentless to the nasty culmination of his stories, and they come to us with all the rawness of unconsoled misery. His art was that of the short story writer, and as such he wrote little, but when reading Poe a little is more than enough.

Secondly, that Poe more than any other author is identified as a man with his works. An orphan and an outcast from his adopted family, overly sensitive and reckless, he lived wildly, lied readily, lived in poverty, married strangely to his thirteen-year old cousin, was widowed miserably, and finally died mysteriously at age forty, from uncertain causes that speculation has named as anything from drug addiction to murder. As if this were not enough, his works were controlled after his death by his executor, who attempted to blacken his name. More than any other author that I can readily think of, Poe was his own tormented, tragic hero, and his oppressed characters were him.

In the nineteen-sixties, several of Poe's stories and poems - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven, The Tomb of Legeia and others - were made into popular, low budget films, cementing Poe's reputation firmly into the mythology of modern horror movies. It's common of course for movies to be nothing like the original written work, but all of these are based on not on fully worked out novels, but ideas that Poe dealt with in comparatively few pages.

Incidentally, the principal actor in many of these was Vincent Price, whose tall, mournful frame instantly springs to mind as well nigh inseparable from Poe's weird gems.

Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven

Editorial Review:

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history.

Giraffes Can't Dance

Giles Andreae

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Do you like calm and weird books? If you do then is the book for you. The story Giraffes Can't Dance is about a Giraffe who is very clumsy and can't dance and gets teased a lot by other animals. Then he figures out that there is something called a jungle dance that will happen in a couple of days and all the animals practice some in groups more then two like the baboons and some just two like the lions. So then he practices but it's no help. So then a wise cricket helps him practice. I won't tell you the hole story but I will give you some more details like the setting is the jungle and some of the characters are the Giraffe, the baboons, lions and more animals that you will love. I thought the authors message was that just because someone or something can't do some thing doesn't mean you shouldn't be their friend or bail on them. So if you want to see what happens by the book I am sure you will like it.

Editorial Review:

Gerald is a giraffe who simply can¹t dance. Try as he may, his long, spindly legs buckle whenever he starts to boogie. Every year he dreads going to the Great jungle Dance, until one night he finds his own special music.

A Child's Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

classic! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book brought back memories of my childhood which I can now pass down to my grandchildren.

Better then expected! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A Child's Garden of VersesI had this book of poems as a child and loved it dearly. I recently purchased this newer (artwork) version of my favorite book, and WOW was I surprised. The artwork was beautiful and added greatly to the beautiful verses. I am sure that not only the baby that I gifted this to, but his parents will love the book (and artwork) as much as I still love mine. Thank You.

A Child's Garden of Verses 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I received this book from a friend at Christmas when I was a child. I always loved it. I sent a copy to my great granddaughters 8th birthday last year with a couple of other story books and she said she loved all of them.

A Child's Garden of Verses 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book of poetry for children. Many, many years ago when I was about nine years old, my great aunt (a school teacher) sent this book to me as a gift. Even though I am now in my 60's, I still have some of the poems memorized. I found such enjoyment in this book that I recently purchased it for my nine-year-old granddaughter.

Editorial Review:

In this well-known collection of poems, master poet Robert Louis Stevenson captures all the joy and magic of childhood. Tasha Tudor's signature watercolors pay tribute to a simpler time in the past, while celebrating both children and nature. Full-color illustrations.