A Picnic Of Poems

"The chatty informal rhythms and the mix of everyday detail with the universals make this picture book a great family read-aloud." —Booklist "Dawud's latest book A Picnic of Poems is another masterpiece of poetry that captures the essence of every child's hopes, dreams, and fears, in the most colorful and imaginative way. It is a delectable treat for the whole family, filled with beautiful illustrations. Every part has a wonderful lesson to draw from and will provide all, young and old, with great guidance for generations to come." —Zain Bhikha, South African singer/songwriter A collection of thirty poems to keep the young and young-at-heart entertained for hours. These poems cover a number of topics including motherhood, daily prayer, baby siblings, life on a farm, the animal kingdom, bullying, mosques, Ramadan, appreciating nature, and more. The book comes with an audio CD to sing along to these joyful yet educational poems. "A Picnic of Poems" I've packed some poems for lunch, some rhymes for us to chew, a simple, sippy, soup of songs, to stir and sing and stew. Like all good meals to munch, it would be very rude not to begin with bismillah, to bless our poetry food. Canadian-born Dawud Wharnsby began writing poetry, composing music, and performing in his teens. Since then he has become a voice for socially conscious and spiritually minded individuals in the twenty-first century.

A collection of thirty poems about knowing God, living and enjoying a full life, and being a good person.

Winner of the 1999 Paterson Poetry Prize Over the past decade, Billy Collins has emerged as the most beloved American poet since Robert Frost, garnering critical acclaim and broad popular appeal. Annie Proulx admits, "I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours." John Updike proclaims his poems "consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides." This special, limited edition celebrates Billy Collins's years as U.S. Poet Laureate. Picnic, Lightning—one of the books that helped establish and secure his reputation and popularity during the 1990s—combines humor and seriousness, wit and sublimity. His poems touch on a wide range of subjects, from jazz to death, from weather to sex, but share common ground where the mind and heart can meet. Whether reading him for the first time or the fiftieth, this collector's edition is a must-have for anyone interested in the poet the New York Times calls simply "the real thing."

The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet “illuminates the shadow side of life in poems as perfectly formed and directed as the beam of a flashlight” (Booklist). The poems in Charles Simic’s new collection evoke a variety of settings and images, from New York City to small New England towns; from crowds spilling onto the sidewalk on a hot summer night to an abandoned wooden church and a car graveyard overgrown with weeds. His subjects range from a bakery early in the morning to the fingerprints on a stranger’s front door; from waiters in an empty restaurant to the decorations in a window of a funeral home; from a dog tied to a chain to a homeless man sleeping at the foot of a skyscraper; and other moments of solitude and clear vision. “What is beautiful,’ he writes in one poem, “is found accidentally and not sought after. What is beautiful is easily lost.” Simic is the metaphysician of the ordinary, a poet who reminds us of the mysteries of our daily lives. “This first book of poems since 1999’s Jackstraws continues Simic’s familiar, unsettling methods and extends them into the terrain of older age . . . Simic remains a powerful, and funny, chronicler of an individual world one where pastry, omelets and queen-size beds offer their ambiguous pleasures, and where, inseparably, ‘the butchery of the innocent/ Never stops.’ It is a world that should be familiar.” —Publishers Weekly “Nabokovian in his caustic charm and sexy intelligence, Simic perceives the mythic in the mundane and pinpoints the perpetual suffering that infuses human life with both agony and bliss.” —Booklist

The debut collection of an award-winning Black poet with an unusually warm and compassionate voice

In an illuminating collection of selected poems over thirty-five years, one of our most essential American poets casts a clear eye on our politics, our places, and our heart’s hidden stories. D. Nurkse’s immigrant parents met on a boat out of Europe in 1940; he was a child of the generation whose anxieties were forged in the shadow of Hiroshima and the aftermath of WWII. His poems extend that child’s dignified ignorance into an open encounter with the cataclysms of the latter twentieth century and with family structures. Whispers of the old country of Estonia provide the backdrop for the boy’s baseballs, thrown in the fading twilight of the 1950s (“Secretly, I was proudest of my skill / at standing alone in the darkness”). The young man explores sexual passion and the arrival of a child in a young marriage (“We showed her daylight in our cupped hands”), while the mature poet writes of loneliness and community in our cities (“but on the streets / there was no one”), and the urgent need for us to keep expressing our will as citizens. Throughout this matchless career, over eleven books, Nurkse has crafted visceral lines that celebrate the fragility of what simply exists—birdsong, moonrise, illness, water towers—and the complexity of human perception, our stumble forward through it toward understanding.

A Spring 2017 Indie Next Selection Nina Laden’s warm and lyrical picture book sees and appreciates through a child’s eyes how fortunate we are to live in the world we do. Celebrate the wonder of the world in this reassuring picture book about the joy, love, and beauty that is part of each and every day. Our world is full of possibilities if you look for them.

Midnight Picnics in Tehran is Leilah Jane King's debut collection. It is a tale of two countries, three cities and an innumerable amount of drinks being thrown in people's faces. Leilah paints striking imagery of the bustling cities of Shiraz and Tehran, the former her mother's birth place. She conveys a melancholic nostalgia and love for a culture still novel to her that is remembered warmly from childhood summers spent in Iran's beautiful mountains and parks. Midnight Picnics does not only focus on Iran but talks about Leilah's time living in Bristol and Brighton. She shares an open, honest and raw account inviting you to navigate your way through sexuality, androgyny and anger.

Go on a walk to the park with all different kinds of dogs and their owners in this funny and charming poetry picture book. Enjoy Avery Corman's canine poetry for an Afghan hound, basset hound, beagle, bloodhound, Daschshund, boxer, greyhound, and more as they stroll with their owners to the park.PugIs the Pug cute? Or is the Pug ugh?Mostly, people loveThe little Pug's mugHyewon Yum captures the unique characteristics of the owner and his pet as she beautifully illustrates the humorous walk from each dog's home to the park and back.

This long beloved poetry treasury from acclaimed anthologist Jack Prelutsky is now available in paperback for the very first time! America's favorite children's poet and anthologist, Jack Prelutsky has selected more than 200 poems for every occasion, every event, every experience that a young child encounters, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, all written by popular and well-known twentieth century poets. Each poem is artfully brought to life in the bright, playful illustrations of award-winning artist Marc Brown. From cover to cover, this fantastic anthology is filled with timeless fun that will open young minds to the magic and meaning of words and enchant both parents and children for generations to come. "A spirited collection, covering the day from dawn to dusk. Exuberantly illustrated." —The New York Times Book Review