The Meeting Place And Other Poems

G. Anita Johnson, author of Journeys, once again defines herself as a distinct poetic artist in her new book, The Meeting Place and Other Poems (A Collection of Lyric Poems and Haiku). The Meeting Place and Other Poems is a thematic collection of short lyrical poems on Life, Love, Faith, and Nature, concluding with a section on Haiku. Though short, each poem in collection is rich in meaning and imagination. Ms. Johnsons masterful use of language, akin to an artists use of a brush, paints vivid images and evokes powerful emotions. Her lyrical voice resounds in pithy poems of poignant romance, ardent life, and abiding faith expressed in such titles as We Used to Dance, hurting, Time, Buildings of Stone, You Are Not Alone, and Ode to the God of Loyal Love. The skillfully crafted haiku reveal her keen perception of nature and everyday life. These lyrical poems and haiku will inspire, comfort, and nourish the human spirit. The Meeting Place and Other Poems has universal appeal and will touch the heart and soul of each reader. For a unique poetic experience, take a seat, relax and savor the poetry of The Meeting Place and Other Poems.

Forty years sober when he neared the end of his life, Jack McCarthy gives the world something special in his final collection of poetry and true stories. This is his legacy to the people who saved his life. Jack McCarthy's poem "Drunks” has gone around the world on recovery websites and is one of the most popular poems on the harsh climb out of alcoholism to date.

No American writer of the nineteenth century was more universally enjoyed and admired than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His works were extraordinary bestsellers for their era, achieving fame both here and abroad. Now, for the first time in over twenty-five years, The Library of America offers a full-scale literary portrait of America’s greatest popular poet. Here are the poems that created an American mythology: Evangeline in the forest primeval, Hiawatha by the shores of Gitche Gumee, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the wreck of the Hesperus, the village blacksmith under the spreading chestnut tree, the strange courtship of Miles Standish, the maiden Priscilla and the hesitant John Alden; verses like “A Psalm of Life” and “The Children’s Hour,” whose phrases and characters have become part of the culture. Here as well, along with the public antislavery poems, are the sparer, darker lyrics—"The Fire of Drift-Wood," “Mezzo Cammin,” “Snow-Flakes,” and many others—that show a more austere aspect of Longfellow’s poetic gift. Erudite and fluent in many languages, Longfellow was endlessly fascinated with the byways of history and the curiosities of legend. As a verse storyteller he had no peer, whether in the great book-length narratives such as Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha (both included in full) or the stories collected in Tales of a Wayside Inn (reprinted here in a generous selection). His many poems on literary themes, such as his moving homages to Dante and Chaucer, his verse translations from Lope de Vega, Heinrich Heine, and Michelangelo, and his ambitious verse dramas, notably The New England Tragedies (also complete), are remarkable in their range and ambition. As a special feature, this volume restores to print Longfellow’s novel Kavanagh, a study of small-town life and literary ambition that was praised by Emerson as an important contribution to the development of American fiction. A selection of essays rounds out of the volume and provides testimony of Longfellow’s concern with creating an American national literature. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

"In The Meeting Place, Dede Cummings exposes some of the more interesting cards in the deck of her life. The results are a series of openhearted, straightforward poems, which are as sensitive to the natural world as they are to the inner one. Best of all, they are sensitive to the reader, whose presence is welcomed (if sometimes shyly) into these intimate rooms." --Billy Collins "In Dede Cummings' The Meeting Place, we find a writer at the height of her powers, reaching back to the past to and not only herself, but also to explore her family's origins, and the sources of love that bind them together. Yet in these open-armed, funny, serious and sacred poems, we also meet ourselves over and over, for Cummings knows that the specific, when lovingly described, becomes the universal. Dede Cummings is 'writing to reach' a world desperately in need of the tenderness and affection that underpin each and every one of her poems." --James Crews "Neighborhood bullies, first love, the ties that thread sisters, mothers, a long marriage. The poems in The Meeting Place follow the longitudinal lines of family, as well as the globe. They take us to Portugal, Cuba, Vermont, Ireland and beyond. And like the jars of 'achingly red Roma tomatoes, ' Cummings describes, they invite you to open them and feast." --Danusha Laméris

A collection of reflections, this book was written during 2020 and 2021 of our global pandemic and lockdown. In a time when we were unable to meet one another personally except through Zoom, I discovered creative ways of meeting others through long walks and a very active imagination. I hope you will meet me here too. Until we meet again eye-to-eye ... from my heart to yours.