Selected poems of Gabriela Mistral [pseud.] Translated by Langston Hughes

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Jean de Sponde

"This bilingual edition of Sonnets of Love & Death introduces today's readers to the intriguing world of Jean de Sponde, a neglected sixteenth-century poet who has at last taken his proper place in the pantheon of French poets. David R. Slavitt's finely crafted translation respects both the content and form of Sponde's original while deftly employing contemporary English poetics that appeal to modern sensibilities.". "Considered one of the most important poets of the Renaissance period and a precursor to John Donne, in his poetry Sponde reflects the tensions - both stylistic and philosophical - of his time. This collection of sonnets, abounding in metaphor, paradox, antithesis, and hyperbole, is a restless personal exploration of the body and the spirit, of the concrete and the abstract, of passion and anguish"--BOOK JACKET.

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Carol Muske

An Octave Above Thunder presents a collection of poems spanning more than twenty years in the career of Carol Muske, who has won acclaim for work that marries sophisticated intelligence, emotional resonance, and technical craft. This volume brings together new poems and a generous selection of work from Muske's five previously published collections.

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Lillias Bever

"The event at the center of this refreshingly conceived cycle of poems is Italian painter Gentile Bellini's sojourn in Istanbul in 1479. Poems undulate out from this experience as the poet carves poetic sculptures that explore the themes of art, archaeology, and the idea of cultural transmission. These insightful contemplations are delicately honed by the author's own experience in Turkey, ultimately fashioning a mirror to history that reflects the landscape of self. Bellini in Istanbul has the finish of voice present in the best poetry, the report on experience and travel of the most interesting people, and the reflective tone of a cultivated inner voice. Though I treasure its descriptive pieces--Italian scenes, Turkish fish markets, comments on and condensations of The Blue Guide--what is the most touching are the poems that intermingle the exotic with the deeply personal--the assessment of a relationship gone bad in a foreign land, then considering a new one aborning; the carrying and birthing of a child thought in terms of Greek myth, and the crisp observations of the world turned into signifiers of the dreamwork which is poetry. Lillias Bever is a gorgeous poet, traveled and travailed, seeking a home in her own strophes."--Publisher's website.

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Charles Bukowski

in this placethere are the dead, the deadly and the dying.there is the cross, the builders of the cross and the burners of thecross.the pattern of my life forms like a cheap shadowon the wall before me.my lovewhat is left of itnow must crawlto wherever it can crawl.the strongest know that death is finaland the happiest are those gifted with theshortest journey.