Poetry

London: Hanover Gallery, 1971. Accordion-bound paperback artist's book; gouache drawings by William Scott reproduced as part of the 1970-1970 series A Girl Surveyed exhibited at the Hanover Gallery, March-April 1971; fifty copies were numbered and signed - this copy is not numbered or signed. Light smudges on covers; spine creased; interior clean and bright. G

W. H. Auden's last, longest, and most ambitious book-length poem won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet by Jerome Robbins.

New York: Random House, 1947. 1st printing. Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; 1/2" at top of spine missing; 1" tear at top left cover; corners chipped; front cover has some soiling in spots; dark green cloth with gilt lettering over maroon on spine; first 8 pages creased at top left; binding tight. G/G-

In this stunning collection, Joy Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where the Mvskoke people, including her own ancestors, were forcibly displaced. From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the Native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo's personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings.

William B. Ewert, Publisher, Concord, NY, 1980. Limited edition, no. 48 of 176 copies, signed on colophon; string tied, wrappers. VG+

New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968. Colophon: This facsimile of the Gehenna Press edition of Blake's Auguries of Innocence was printed for Grossman Publishers New York City at the Meriden Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecticut. The type is Bembo, the paper, Curtis Rag, the composition originally set by Harold McGrath at The Gehenna Press, Northampton, Massachusetts. The book is bound in Ingres Tumba over boards by H. Wolff Book Mfg. Co. in New York City. The whole designed by Leonard Baskin. In slipcase; book has protective wrapper; both book and slipcase in VG condition.

Laura Grace Weldon was the Ohio Poet of the Year in 2019 for this collection of nature filled poems. This collection casts an uncommonly bright glow. In clear language, these poems explore themes of connection and healing through subjects as unusual as cow pastures, dictionaries, to-do lists, and astrophysics. Beauty is revealed in what one reviewer calls "sacraments of the ordinary." Perfect for poetry lovers and those who haven't read a poem in years. 

* Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry *
* Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism * Winner of the NAACP Image Award * Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize * Winner of the PEN Open Book Award *

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
The New Yorker, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, NPR. Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, Slate, Time Out New York, Vulture, Refinery 29, and many more . . .

A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric.

Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named post-race society.

New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1913. 1st edition. No dust jacket; blue cloth with gilt lettering on cover and spine; t.e.g.; edges worn; corners bumped; covers scuffed; frontispiece with sepia portrait of poet; title page has shadow of portrait; hinges weak. G-

A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret Atwood

In Dearly, Margaret Atwood's first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and - zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.

While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood's fiction--including her groundbreaking and bestselling novels The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, Oryx and Crake, among others--she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry. This collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.

Mary Oliver's Dog Songs is a celebration of the special bond between human and dog, as understood through the poet's relationships to the canines that have accompanied her daily walks, warmed her home, and inspired her work. Oliver's poems begin in the small everyday moments familiar to all dog lovers, but through her extraordinary vision, these observations become higher meditations on the world and our place in it.

Dog Songs includes visits with old friends, like Oliver's beloved Percy, and introduces still others in poems of love and laughter, heartbreak and grief. Throughout, the many dogs of Oliver's life merge as fellow travelers and as guides, uniquely able to open our eyes to the lessons of the moment and the joys of nature and connection.

The Associated Publishers Inc, 1941, nod. Blue boards, library markings.  Good-

Irreverent poet, whimsical artist and bestselling author -- Shel Silverstein is back! "Falling Up," the brand-new collection of more than 140 Silverstein poems and drawings, is the long-awaited companion to the bestselling classics "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "A Light in the Attic."

Poor Screamin' Millie is just one of the unforgettable characters in this wondrous new book. You also will meet Allison Beals and her 25 eels; Danny O'Dare the Dancin' Bear; the Human Balloon; Headphone Harold; and more!

So come, wander through the Nose Garden, ride the Little Horse, eat in the Strange Restaurant and let the magic of Shel Silverstein open your eyes and tickle your mind.

Description from the flap: "Freshness and vitality, a poignant understanding of the human heart in love, distinguish this new volume of sonnets by one of America's most popular and most distinguished poets. Extraordinary richness of emotion, a depth of thought and feeling place it among the finest collections in modern English poetry. The reader feels that here is an unconquerable personality, a heart which faces life with an untiring eagerness to taste all of its sorrows and all of its joys. In this sonnet sequence Miss Millay demonstrates her mastery of rhyme and rhythm, bringing to the classic form a color and a splendor all her own. This is a book which no lover of poetry should miss."

New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1931. First edition. Dust jacket in protective cover; head of spine and top rear edge chipped with some small tears; top front corner chipped; edges toned; spine toned; black cloth spine and corners over brown paper boards with title and author on paper label on spine; binding tight; text clean. VG/G

New York: Random House, 1944. 1st printing.

One Volume contains two of Auden's long poems: "For the Time Being - A Christmas Oratorio" and "The Sea and the Mirror - A Commentary of Shakespeare's The Tempest." Previous owner has laid in "Christmas 1958" poem by Auden.

Dust jacket in protective cover; small tears at head and heel of spine; corners chipped; navy blue paper over white cloth; gilt lettering on spine; endpapers tanned; signature of former owner in ink on pastedown; bleed-through of glue from repair between pages 3-6;  G/G-

New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1902; 31 illustrations in photogravure reproduced from the original designs of Gustave Dore; reprint of the original Moxon folio edition; Margaret Armstrong cover design in gilt on navy blue cloth; light shelf wear; corners lightly bumped; front hinge weak; text clean and bright. G

Not only was Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) one of the most important American poets of his generation, he was also intimately involved with the art world of the 1950s and 1960s, a time when New York had become the cultural capital of the world. As an associate curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara organized a series of important exhibitions, notably of the work of Franz Kline and of Robert Motherwell. In Memory of My Feelings explores this key period in modern art by presenting artists who were associated with O'Hara and whose seminal works are reflected in his poetry.

Limited edition, number 981/2500; published by Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967; 30 poems illustrated by 30 artists, on gathered sheets in portfolio and slipcase as issued; top of slipcase soiled; front and top of slipcase lightly foxed; light foxing on cloth edge of front cover; inside is clean and bright. G+/G

A gardener tends her vegetables and flowers while devising a way to manage her burgeoning chipmunk problem. A daughter pens a letter to her dead father. Jesus saunters into hot yoga and dazzles the assembled practitioners. Three sisters play on their swing set in the middle of the night. In these-and other-poems from Just the Girls: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees, women support, cheer, challenge, and, ultimately, sustain each other. Just the Girls celebrates women and what it means to be connected to the female whole.

Mary Quade, our lady of broken birds with still beating hearts, of the haunts within a covered bridge, is in love with things (empty dresses, sticks and branches, county fair food), with animals (a sick raccoon, moles, the last passenger pigeon), and because she is in love, she is both fiercely curious and deeply wary. These poems of great, imaginative empathy are sharpened with the understanding that, really, we are so greedy, "all unclean, all appetite." -- Katie Northrop

One of Mary Quade's poems, making an analogy with photographic depth of field, begins by observing that "The smaller the window / the more you will see / clearly." The whole of Local Extinctions, from the birthday party magician in the first poem to the American Legion pancakes at the county fair in the last, embraces that principle as an ideal. The infinite care Mary Quade takes in framing and focus results every time in perfect clarity, each poem revealing something that only Quade could show us, as only she could show it. -- H. L. Hix

One of America's most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart.

For more than thirty years, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has inspired, enlightened, and dazzled readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, this artist long hailed as a healer and a sage returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and give readers an unfiltered look into the most private parts of herself.

In Make Me Rain, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as "I Come from Athletes" and "Rainy Days"--calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as "Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)" and ""When I Could No Longer"--her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life.

Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul.

With its defiance for any one tradition or voice, Thomas Sayers Ellis's debut becomes a powerful argument against monotony

A dream. A democracy. A savage liberty.
And yet another anthem and yet another heaven
and yet another party wants you.
Wants you wants you wants you.
--from "Groovallegiance"

In one poem, Thomas Sayers Ellis prognosticates, "Pretty soon, the Age of the Talk Show / Will slip on a peel left in the avant- gutter." The result is The Maverick Room, the testing ground of determination and serendipity, where call-and-response becomes Steinian echo becomes Post-Soul percussive pleasure becomes a bootlegged recording hustled out of a D.C. go-go club.

From the cover: "A selection from the last poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, poems which she at the time of her death was preparing for publication, together with a few unpublished poems from an earlier period."

Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1954. 1st edition. Dust jacket in protective cover; edges chipped and creased with some small tears; price clipped; black cloth spine over blue paper boards with gilt lettering on spine; edges toned; endpapers have areas of tanning; binding tight; text clean. G+/G

The Dolmen Press, 1967. Limited edition; The New Dolmen Chapbooks, 2; published in the U.S. by Dufour Editions, Chester Springs, PA. Sewn in card covers with attached dust jacket; covers rubbed and soiled; bottom of front flap clipped; former owner's name in ink on inside cover. G

Cats! Some are sane, and some are mad.
Some are good, and some are bad . . .

These lovable cat poems were written by T. S. Eliot for his godchildren and continue to delight children and grown-ups. Eliot's beloved cat poems are a curious and artful homage to felines young and old, merry and fierce, small and unmistakably round.

Yellow cloth with red figures and printing, dusty yellow dj with black drawings and print, chips at top of spine and some darkening.  G/G

Iowa City: The Stone Wall Press, 1963. Limited edition, no. 105 of 220 copies; inscribed by author on ffep; no dj; brown paper with title/author on cream label on spine; top of covers and spine lightly faded; binding good; text clean and bright. VG

James Dickey (1923-1997) was widely regarded as one of the major mid-century American poets, known for his sweeping historical vision and eccentric poetic style. "Dickey himself dubbed his style, which blurred dreams and reality in an attempt to accommodate the irrational, 'country surrealism.' However, one of Dickey’s principal themes, usually expressed through direct confrontation or surreal juxtaposition of nature and civilization, was the need to intensify life by maintaining contact with the primitive impulses, sensations, and ways of seeing suppressed by modern society." [Poetry Foundation] 

The Deerfield Press, Deerfield, MA, Gallery Press, Dublin, Ireland, 1980.  Printed by Harold McGrath at Hampshire in Northampton, MA, and bound by Museum Bookbindings in Dublin, limited to 300 copies signed by author. With two color woodblock illustrations by Timothy Engelland.  Additional inscription on title page by Dickey to Liz.  F/F

1st printing, March 1923. No dust jacket; original publisher's dark green cloth; gilt lettering and decoration on spine; corners bumped; original owner's signature in ink on ffep; endpapers smudged; front hinge weak; deckled edges. G

Sweeney Astray is Seamus Heaney's version of the medieval Irish work Buile Suibne. Its hero, Mad Sweeney, undergoes a series of purgatorial adventures after he is cursed by a saint and turned into a bird at the Battle of Moira. Heaney's translation not only restores to us a work of historical and literary importance but offers the genius of one of our greatest living poets to reinforce its claims on the reader of contemporary literature.

1st U.S. edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; previous owner signature on front pastedown; two lines of ink underlining on page iii of the introduction. G/VG

Self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde is an unforgettable voice in twentieth-century literature, and one of the first to center the experiences of black, queer women. This essential reader showcases her indelible contributions to intersectional feminism, queer theory, and critical race studies in twelve landmark essays and more than sixty poems--selected and introduced by one of our most powerful contemporary voices on race and gender, Roxane Gay.

Among the essays included here are:

The poems are drawn from Lorde's nine volumes, including The Black Unicorn and National Book Award finalist From a Land Where Other People Live. Among them are:

Liveright Inc, NY, 1932, First Edition.  No dust jacket; black cloth over pale pink paper; cover soiled; 2 short tears at top of spine; gilt decoration on front cover; interior clean, unmarked and tight. G

Bill Arthrell is a poet in Cleveland, Ohio. Inspired by the Maidan Revolution, he traveled to the Ukraine. The poetry of Ukrainian Heart expresses his amazement about those events and the Ukrainian nation. The poems are written in English and then translated to the Ukrainian.

Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize
Finalist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection

The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States

Even the men in black armor, the ones
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else

Are they so buffered against, if not love's blade
Sizing up the heart's familiar meat?

We watch and grieve. We sleep, stir, eat.
Love: the heart sliced open, gutted, clean.

Love: naked almost in the everlasting street,
Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze.

--from "Unrest in Baton Rouge"

In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice--inquisitive, lyrical, and wry--turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence. Here, private utterance becomes part of a larger choral arrangement as the collection widens to include erasures of The Declaration of Independence and the correspondence between slave owners, a found poem comprised of evidence of corporate pollution and accounts of near-death experiences, a sequence of letters written by African Americans enlisted in the Civil War, and the survivors' reports of recent immigrants and refugees. Wade in the Water is a potent and luminous book by one of America's essential poets.

"WE WANT OUR BODIES BACK URGES BLACK WOMEN TO DEMAND BETTER FROM MEN." -ESSENCE

"MASTER POET JESSICA CARE MOORE GIFTS US THIS LATEST COLLECTION OF SHARP, SMART AND DEFIANT PIECES." -MS. MAGAZINE

BOOKS BY BLACK WOMEN WE CAN'T WAIT TO READ IN 2020 -REFINERY29

A dazzling full-length collection of verse from one of the leading poets of our time.

Over the past two decades, jessica Care moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendent electric voice, this searing poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women's creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race. Fierce and passionate, Jessica Care moore argues that Black women spend their lives building a physical and emotional shelter to protect themselves from misogyny, criminalization, hatred, stereotypes, sexual assault, objectification, patriarchy, and death threats.

We Want Our Bodies Back is an exploration--and defiant stance against--these many attacks.