This wide-ranging collection of inspirational poetry and prose offers readers solace, perspective, and the courage to persevere.

Product Code: 6735
ISBN: 9780399592836
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Pages: 224
Published Date: 10/31/2017
Availability:In stock
N/A
Price: $22.00

In times of personal hardship or collective anxiety, words have the power to provide comfort, meaning, and hope. The past year has seen a resurgence of poetry and inspiring quotes—posted on social media, appearing on bestseller lists, shared from friend to friend. Honoring this communal spirit, How Lovely the Ruins is a timeless collection of both classic and contemporary poetry and short prose that can be of help in difficult times—selections that offer wisdom and purpose, and that allow us to step out of our current moment to gain a new perspective on the world around us as well as the world within.

The poets and writers featured in this book represent the diversity of our country as well as voices beyond our borders, including Maya Angelou, W. H. Auden, Danez Smith, Rumi, Emily Dickinson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alice Walker, Adam Zagajewski, Langston Hughes, Wendell Berry, Anna Akhmatova, Yehuda Amichai, and Robert Frost.

The book opens with a stunning foreword by Elizabeth Alexander, whose poem “Praise Song for the Day,” delivered at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, ushered in an era of optimism. In works celebrating our capacity for compassion, our patriotism, our right to protest, and our ability to persevere, How Lovely the Ruins is a beacon that illuminates our shared humanity, allowing us connection in a fractured world.


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Contents

Introduction by Annie Chagnot and Emi Ikkanda
Foreword by Elizabeth Alexander
I. HOW LOVELY THE RUINS
TRY TO PRAISE THE MUTILATED WORLD Adam Zagajewski
(Translated by Clare Cavanagh)
THERE ARE BIRDS HERE Jamaal May
THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (excerpt) Omar Khayyam
POEM Muriel Rukeyser
HAIKU Clark Strand
FIRE AND ICE Robert Frost
THE PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT Yehuda Amichai
(Translated by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell)
ALL WHO SLEEP TONIGHT Vikram Seth
THE GUEST HOUSE Rumi
(Translated by Coleman Barks)
THE SENTENCE (Excerpt) Anna Akhmatova
(Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer)
A GREEN CRAB’S SHELL Mark Doty
DOVER BEACH Matthew Arnold
OUT BEYOND IDEAS Rumi
(Translated by Coleman Barks)
HAIKU Masahide
WHAT KIND OF TIMES ARE THESE Adrienne Rich
MUSEE DES BEAUX ARTS W.H. Auden
Quotation from Virginial Woolf
SCI-FI Tracy K. Smith

II. AGAINST TYRANNY
Quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN (Excerpt) W.B. Yeats
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING Walt Whitman
DIFFERENCES OF OPINION Wendy Cope
Quotation from Robert F. Kennedy
PROTEST Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Excerpt from Parable of the Talentsby Octavia E. Butler
WHAT IT LOOK LIKE Terrance Hayes
ELECTION John Holmes
Quotations from Vaclav Havel
VIEWERS MAY THINK THAT THEY CAN PROCESS IT ALLStephanie Gray
EXPERIENCE Carl Sandburg
GLOBAL WARMING Jane Hirshfield
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 W.H. Auden
EVIL Langston Hughes
AMERICAN PHAROAH Ada Limon
Quotation from Clarles Simic
TO A FRIEND WHOSE WORK HAS COME TO NOTHING (Excerpt) W.B. Yeats
TOWARD NIGHTFALL (Excerpt) Clarles Simic
Quotations from Karen Armstrong
I WORK ALL DAY Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Francesca Valente)
PREPARATION Effie Waller Smith

III. THE ACHING
Excerpt from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
AMERICA Claude McKay
REMEMBER Christina Rossetti
GOOD BONES Maggie Smith
DIRGE WITHOUT MUSIC Edna St. Vincent Millay
FOUR IN THE MORNING Wislawa Szymborska
(Translated by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert Maguire)
Excerpt from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
CREDO Edwin Arlington Robinson
HOURS Hazel Hall
THE THING IS Ellen Bass
IF I CAN STOP ONE HEART FROM BREAKING Emily Dickinson
A DISPLAY OF MACKEREL Mark Doty
Excerpt from The World as I See It by Albert Einstein
Q & A Kenneth Fearing
HANDS Safiya Sinclair
SOME YEARS THERE EXISTS A WANTING TO ESCAPE Claudia Rankine
Quotation from Carl Sagan
IT COMES IN EVERY STORM Olga Orozco
(Translated by Mary Crow)
AT A WINDOW (Excerpt) Carl Sandburg
GOD SPEAKS TO EACH OF US AS HE MAKES US Rainer Maria Rilke
(Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

IV. THE NEW PATRIOTS
Quotation from Anais Nin
PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAYElizabeth Alexander
Excerpt from Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coats
I, TOO Langston Hughes
SOMEDAY I’LL LOVE OCEAN VUONG Ocean Vuong
Quotation from Karel Capek
SECOND ATTEMPT CROSSING Javier Zamora
NOW THAT WE HAVE TASTED HOPE Khaled Mattawa
ABEYANCE Rebecca Faust
Excerpt from “summer somewhere” by Danez Smith
WHAT CHANGES Naomi Shihab Nye
TO BE A WOMAN Alice Walker
DEAR WHITE AMERICA Danez Smith
DAILY BREAD (Excerpt) Ocean Vuong
REFUGEES Brian Bilson
@ THE CROSSROADS- A SUDDEN AMERICAN POEM Juan Felipe Herrera
A QUEERIFICATION Regie Cabico
Quotation from Gloria Steinem
THE BORDER: A DOUBLE SONNET Alberto Rios
YOU’RE DEAD AMERICA Danez Smith
Quotation from Dinos Christianopoulos
AMERICA, AMERICA (Excerpt) Saadi Youssef
KINDNESS Naomi Shihab Nye
MOON FOR OUR DAUGHTERS Annie Finch
LANGSTON HUGHES Gwendolyn Brooks
THE NEW COLOSSUS Emma Lazarus

V. GATHERING STRENGTH
Quotations from Ovid
WHEN I RISE UP Georgia Douglass Johnson
I HAVE NO QUARREL WITH YOU Florence Brooks Whitehouse
SQUALL Lenora Speyer
Quotation from Nelson Mandela
Excerpt from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
STILL I RISE Maya Angelou
Quotation from Vincent Ban Gogh
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGSWendell Berry
EVERYBODY HAS A HEARTACHE, A BLUES Joy Harjo
Quotation from Charles Dickens
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS Mark Strand
Invictus William Ernest Henley
The GIFT TO SING James Weldon Johnson
Quotation from Maya Angelous
BE NOBODY’S DARLING Alice Walker
CHEERFULNESS TAUGHT BY REASON Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM Edgar Allan Poe
Excerpt from When Breath Becomes air by Paul Kalanithi
SONG OF QUIETNESS Robinson Jeffers
LOVE William Carlos Williams
THE DAY IS DONE Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Quotation from Sadhguru
PRAYER AT SUNRISE James Weldon Johnson
WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR Rabindranath Tagore
Excerpt from TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE by Bohumil Hrabal
“HOPE” IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS Emily Dickinson
Quotation from Rabindranath Tagore
I AM RUNNING INTO A NEW YEAR Lucille Clifton
OUR TRUE HERITAGE Thich Nhat Hanh
Quotation from Pablo Neruda
FROM BLOSSOMS Li-Young Lee
Quotation from Thomas A. Edison
I CARRY YOUT HEART WITH ME (I CARRY IT IN) E.E. Cummings
FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1981 Denise Levertov
Barter Sara Teasdale
Quotation from Leonard Cohen
ALWAYS THERE ARE THE CHILDREN Nikki Giovani
Excerpt from A POWER GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SUPPRESS by Howard Zinn
IN MEMORIUM, [RING OUT, WILD BELLS] (Excerpt) Lord Aalfred Tennyson

Acknowledgements
Index
Permissions Acknowledgements
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