Appointed Rounds

A prose poem is a poem written in prose rather than verse. But what does that really mean? Is it an indefinable hybrid? An anomaly in the history of poetry? Are the very words "prose poem" an oxymoron? This groundbreaking anthology edited by celebrated poet David Lehman, editor of The Best American Poetry series, traces the form in all its dazzling variety from Poe and Emerson to Auden and Ashbery and on, right up to the present. In his brilliant and lucid introduction, Lehman explains that a prose poem can make use of all the strategies and tactics of poetry, but works in sentences rather than lines. He also summarizes the prose poem's French heritage, its history in the United States, and the salient differences between verse and prose. Arranged chronologically to allow readers to trace the gradual development of this hybrid genre, the poems anthologized here include important works from such masters of American literature as Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, e. e. cummings, Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, James Schuyler, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, and Elizabeth Bishop. Contemporary mainstays and emerging poets -- Robert Bly, John Ashbery, Charles Simic, Billy Collins, Russell Edson, James Tate, Anne Carson, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Lydia Davis, among them -- are represented with their best work in the field. The prose poem is beginning to enjoy a tremendous upswing in popularity. Readers of this marvelous collection, a must-have for anyone interested in the current state of the art, will learn why.

How do I find meaning in my life? How can I find meaning in my work? World-renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's ""Man's Search for Meaning"" is one of the most important books of modern times. Frankl's personal story of finding a reason to live in the most horrendous of circumstances-Nazi concentration camps-has inspired millions. Now, ""Prisoners of Our Thoughts"" applies Frankl's philosophy and therapeutic approach to life and work in the 21st Century, detailing seven principles for increasing your capacity to deal with life-work challenges, finding meaning in your daily life and work, and

A look back on 2005 through the writings of some loser from New Mexico.

Michael McFee's new book takes its title from the unofficial motto of the US Postal Service: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." All of us have appointed rounds in our lives-essential things we are given to do and must try to complete, whatever the inner or outer weather, whenever the time of day or night, however we may approach those duties. This lively and wide-ranging collection of fifty essays-many of them pointed, a page or so, in the playful manner of Robert Francis and The Satirical Rogue on Poetry, and others rolling on for much longer-addresses McFee's appointed rounds, subjects he has been thinking and caring about for decades: books, his native Western North Carolina mountains, writing, reading, editing, teaching, and, as the title suggests, the daily mail. It includes pieces on "My Inner Hillbilly" and Appalachia, on "Authors' Photos" and "Blurbs" and other parts of the physical book, on "My New Yorker" and contemporary literary culture, on "Poets as Novelists" and "Marginalia" and being a writer, on a teacher's "Gradebook" and "The Blackboard," and on authorial matters like "Voice," "Audience," and "Immortality." The prose explorations in Appointed Rounds, like McFee's poems, are meant as appreciations, paying close attention to things that have mattered to him (and many others), savoring their details while exploring their larger design, and saving his versions of them even as they may change or fade or disappear altogether.

"Michael Deagler is the real deal." —Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No Don’t worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He’s sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances—if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood. Monk’s haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing better than him—and most of them aren’t even doing that well. His run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers challenge his version of events past and present, revealing that recovery is not the happy ending he’d expected, only a fraught next chapter. Like a sober, millennial Jesus’ Son, Michael Deagler’s debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America’s middle class. Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace.

gallery -e gal...era - 1 a room or building for the display or sale of works of art - a collection of pictures. 2 a horizontal underground passage, esp. in a mine. PHRASES Play to the gallery - act in an exaggerated or theatrical manner, esp. to appeal to popular taste.

Connecticut Characters: Profiles of Rascals and Renegades is a collection of the most popular profiles and colorful accounts written by long-time columnist Randall Beach. His columns were written over a span of 40 years and are fondly remembered by many New Haven Register readers. When Randall began writing the column, some of his newsroom colleagues dubbed the subjects “creep of the week” because often the subjects were so odd and eccentric. But none of them were “creeps;” they simply had a different way of looking at the world and of living. He always strove to give them dignity along with recognition. His writings always strike an affectionate tone and are often humorous, but never mocking. The individuals that he wrote were from all over Connecticut––well beyond the New Haven area. The collection focuses on some well-known people, such as former Yale University President A. Bartlett Giamatti, but mostly the profiles are of people, some colorful, who are part of the fabric of the state. It’s a remarkable and fascinating collection of profiles about people from all different walks of life around Connecticut.