The Comprehensive Anthology of Early 21st Century Arab Poets

The Comprehensive Anthology of Early 21st Century Arab Poets offers a rich tapestry of voices from the Arab world, transcending borders of geography, history, and culture.

These poets weave a diverse and intricate mosaic that reflects not only the multifaceted Arab realm with its myriad religious, political, and cultural nuances but also showcases them as enlightened, compassionate global citizens.

Dive into this collection and discover the vibrant heart and soul of contemporary Arab poetry.

The Bible According to Eve

The Bible According to Eve: The Women of the Torah retells the stories of the women of the Hebrew Bible in the first five books. It begins with a poem about the Eve of the books, moves through the story of Eve's loss in Cain's murder of Abel and the tale of Noah's wife to the stories of the patriarchs' wives of Genesis. It follows with poems relating to the stories of Moses's family and laws of Leviticus, Numbers, and the other books of the Pentateuch. Boldly told from an all-female perspective, The Bible According to Eve is a more exhaustive treatment of the Bible's women than The Red Tent or After Abel and Other Stories, on top of being easy to understand and a joy to read.

The Art of Dying

Much writing on the subject of death, dying, cancer, and grief is often sugar coated. That is understandable, considering the difficulty experienced by those dealing with it. However, in the process of grieving, it is essential to express, in often raw terms, how excruciating it is. Jere Truer, being both a therapist and a widower, worked through his grief via poetry and honesty, with the hope that these poems will validate others’ reality, give permission to bear down into grief and emerge on the other side of it.

The Albatross

Some believe that we put on different masks to face the world each day. Some people have this control and some don’t. The Albatross sheds light on the darkest parts of the mind that most struggle to comprehend and share with the world. Through this work, perhaps all the broken souls can come together.

Surviving Cancer

A poet's arduous journey of love and lament, verse by verse.

Please read this book's content, and discover life at its best and its worst.

There are many defining moments in life. The moment which defines my life is when I rang the bell at Penn Medicine, in Philadelphia, which put an exclamation point to the last of my 30 radiation treatments for cancer of the larynx. Because of my wife, our four children, seven grandchildren and dear friends, I have survived the darkest days in my life. I can never thank them enough. On the field called life, it’s not about watching from the side lines, it’s about participating in daily living and giving your heart and soul to making yourself wiser and healthier, and to helping those near and dear to you reach their goals. This book is dedicated to all those brave souls, who fight the good fight and never give up when unforeseen disease strikes them down.

Sunset Silhouettes

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

round up its warmth and retracts the lights to feed another

in degrees it recedes, slipping in, out, and about

the flaming orangey clouds half-dipped in the horizon

a dazzling hopelessness courts the night

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

but can it account for the slumped lone silhouette

faceless beauty that hovers in its foreground

matching its sadness with the splendid sunset

a dazzling hopelessness encamps the soul

the final charm of a dying day.

Sunset Silhouettes is Linda Adede Ongola’s debut poetry anthology which features a hundred poems written mostly in free verse and of the confessional genre. It covers themes of mental health, theodicy, love, betrayal, and corruption among other social concerns.

Studies in Smoke

Studies in Smoke is not fiction. The shared event is actual and the resonance real. So is this.

This poetry remains faithful to traditional form. It is true to life and to living simply while thinking too much.

It is true to the cycle of uneasy, never settled sentiments that prescribe no moral, no message, no mysticism. In plain language and the fitting phrase, this work is authentic to the voices of inanimate shadings, to the shifting shapes that drift into evanescent experience.

This work offers the painterly touches not yet digitalized in the mind’s eye.

Buy the ticket. Take the ride.

Storyteller in Times Square

Storyteller in Times Square opens with a visit to New York and the ruins of the World Trade Center. Thus begins a poetry collection that reflects in subtle and surprising ways the post World War II history of the United States. Without being either “political” or “ideological,” the poet employs concise and often disciplined forms of language to touch upon deeper matters of destiny and feeling.  Our lives, our deeds, our ideas—all of these have consequences for how we treat our land and each other. The moments of lyricism and humor help us to keep our balance. And the perspective is important, for these poems are about paying attention to reality. Can we pay attention to the voices of history submerged in our wake, swirling behind us? Perhaps that question in essence is what these poems ask of us.

Stand Alone Still

Embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery and healing in this compelling exploration of resilience and forgiveness.

Have you endured unimaginable hardships, surviving what feels like hell on earth, only to realize that the path to salvation lies not in entering heaven, but in healing your own wounded heart? In this poignant tale, you will discover that the true meaning of home extends far beyond physical walls – it resides within the depths of your own being.

As you navigate the challenging terrain of self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others, you will uncover a profound truth: the battle lies not in the external world, but within yourself. It is through this internal struggle that you find the strength to grow and transcend the limitations imposed upon you.

Something More

Whether one takes the road less-traveled, or takes the well-traveled road more slowly, each choice is a deliberate one made on the calculated chance that, perhaps, such particular choice will yield an ever-desired, but always elusive 'something more' that will grace one’s life. For example: the unexpected perception of something sublime in the ordinary; the mysteries of an open door; a new awareness of a familiar voice; intrigues of a fragrant hour; the thrill of a sudden, new consciousness-raising thought or emotion; any ‘something more’, really, that at once sustains us and comforts us.

In this book, it is these moments of experiencing something more that author, John Swearingen, shares with the reader, in verse form, the delight he found in each such moment of experiencing something more, hoping they, too, will be delighted in the telling.

Singing Down the Rain

Poetry can be viewed as a reflection, a song, if you will, of society in the time it is written, but at the same time, it is timeless in the continuum of past, present, and future. In the dance of words, the reader will follow the Rorschach Ink Blots in the dance of words to find meaning in the visual imagery presented here.

She Said!

In the end, life is but memories of time. The time we are given to form these memories are very limited. Yet, most of us get stuck in our loop of beliefs, thoughts, and actions, that we write and rewrite the same story, with the same ink. And at the end, we realize our life is not the story we hoped to read, or it is just a page in an otherwise empty book.  

This poetry book reflects life that resonates with most of us. It is a book that attempts to see and review each life through each own lens. To embrace growth through failure, to learn from mistakes, to champion self-acceptance and self-love, to embrace our differences and to accept change. It is a book of awareness of self and others.