Bøker utgitt av Clare Songbirds Publishing House

Kenneth Johnson's Molten Muse crackles with the electricity of nostalgia. In each poem you find yourself in places forgotten: seeing the ocean for the first time, under the gaze of your first crush, lounging in cool grass to look up at stars or clouds while identifying shapes, the pounding of your heart as your race through the sprinkler in your front yard, bathing suit plastered to skin. You find yourself wanting things: the smell of coffee in your childhood kitchen, the taste of your mom's pancakes, that very particular sense of time standing still. I'm warning you now, this is what will happen when you open Johnson's collection, you'll become feverish, begin desiring things you'd long forgotten.-Shilo Niziolek is the author of Fever and atrophy

Eric Fisher Stone's art encompasses the universe. Bullfrogs and bluebonnets, monks and mountains, guitars and galaxies-even parking lot grackles, Cro-Magnons, and Socrates. It's poetry as philosophy, philosophy as poetry, created by someone who has long dedicated his life to bringing you a Nature-imbued vision of a better world. Bear Lexicon is a Romanticism for today, a guidebook you can read to share in the sublime.- Douglas Lucas, writer/journalist

The silver of spent time' - Hopkins writes in "Fractal Field," one of many haunting, and richly lyrical poems from The Rhyming Sky. The line epitomises where the beauty of this collections lies - in its dazzling depiction of moments witnessing the largesse of nature - moments in which the 'wide bone blue' of the sky transfixes, as does the peat-black wing of the geese, the flight of the 'cloud king' Gull, the bell stars which 'fall and shatter, like constellations of obsidian'. Such is the power of this poet's startling use of language, mastery of cadence and sound, that we are reminded of another Welsh poet, one who similarly cherished the sonic power of poetry, its ability to manifest nature upon the page in a vivid, tangible way. Dylan Thomas would, I am sure, be impressed by Hopkins' transcendent poems and their lush, and incantatory music. ~Anna Saunders, Poet & Founding Director Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

Evidence of Fire takes us on an unflinching journey through the narrator's experiences as an addict using drugs, alcohol, and sex to cope with her depression and anxiety. She is uncompromising in her discussion of abuse, suicide, the bleak landscape of living and aging in poverty and illness in America, and the ameliorating effect of substances and behaviors that take her, if only for a moment, out of the darkness of that existence. She does not shy away from the consequences of that behavior, though-this book takes place in the space between self-awareness and denial and refuses to look away from either.

"Matt Duggan is a rare breed in a poet. Productive and reflective, his work is both contemplative and accessible in the best possible sense, and gives us a glimpse into a world that is nourishing and refreshing. These poems firmly rooted in the tradition of traveller poets, offer the excitement of arrival, the enjoyment of being located and the estrangement of leaving. As Duggan notes in 'Slipping Away from the Radar' we often see the solitary shoreline, away from the mundaneness of modern life. In this startling new collection, Duggan takes us along on a journey through the spectrum of emotions that each we, as readers have come to expect in this poet's work." ~Andrew Taylor, Author of Radio Mast Horizon and March (Shearsman Books), Editor at erbacce-press, M-58 and erbacce, Senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Nottingham Trent University

Bilingual edition of Antonio Rodríguez-Jiménez award winning poetry translated by Jorge Rodríguez-Miralles presents the hauntingly painful realities of modern life. Jorge Rodríguez-Miralles expert translation of Rodríguez-Jiménez' poems stands side by side on the page allowing one to enjoy the beauty of the poetry in both languages. The Spanish edition Los signos del derrumbe was the winner in 2014 of the XVIII¿International Award.

With an authentic style and three-dimensional characters that brings to mind Barbara Kingsolver and Jacqueline Mitchard, Judy McGinn's debut short story collection Rising Up on Ordinary Days ushers us into the intimate world of family dynamics and childhood. Complicated relationships between parents, children, siblings and schoolmates, at times touched by magic, at others ominous, enchant us. We climb a tree with a young girl in lace ankle socks. We swim with a tired mother whose son is soon to leave home. We smell, taste fresh biscuits, hear the thunder of wild ponies, and most of all we feel the love. With personalities as varied as that of an eccentric neighborhood hoarder to an older brother confined to a 1960s mental hospital this gem of a collection is filled with love -and the sometimes-transformative power of heart break- in all its many forms and keeps you turning the pages. McGinn's talent for helping us see the world from a child's intense point of view amazes and delights. This book is sure to leave you wanting more. ~Rachael Ikins, poet, author of Just Two Girls and The Woman with Three Elbows

With a rich language he obviously loves and that is a tool he wields with sure-handed grace and wide ranging classical references from music to literature and the classics, this poet's musical verse will enchant and leave you breathless long after you close the book.

Hopkins opens the door for us into his world with a bang and a dragon from the first page. He walks us through small intimacies of daily life...He creates beauty with unusual imagery and also out of bittersweet and painful moments of the quotidian. Hopkins wields rhyme in unusual ways that surprise and delight, making the musicality of this book a read-aloud treasure...he is a poet for our times, and Take Your Journeys Home a book you must add to your collection.~Rachel Ikins, artist, and author of Just Two Girls the 2017 Independent Book Award Winner for Poetry

Michael Sharp's Certain Silences is a poetic photo album. Filled with the drama, pain, and poignancy of human existence in a time of war. This collection captures the pain and apathy that are the result of living and dying in uncertain times.

With haunting verse, the poet takes us into spooky places beset by fog and night shadows. We hear whispering ghosts of loves long lost, and their inevitable, sometimes uneasy, connection to nature. A book that might disturb your dreams with its beauty and its relationship to worlds unseen just on the other side of the Veil, yet very much alive.

A poet of the personal, Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas' book In the Making of Goodbyes takes us to the land of the heart, a transformative journey where in looking at the difficult turns of events in a life, we are tutored in humility, grace, and tenderness...Her imagery and emotion uplift and fortify. There's a flow to these poems and once in the current, you submit willingly, her voice so intimate that it feels as if she is speaking to you and only you: "Even now as you visit me in dreams,/ I stroke the outline of an unseen being/ and hear the hymns of angels." To Grellas, relationship is everything-to nature, loved ones, the self. Her poems acknowledge our vulnerability as humans yet demand that we own up to the strength we have to embrace whatever life brings us. ~Wendy Patrice Williams, author of In Chaparral, Life on the Georgetown Divide, California

Lorraine Bruno Arsenault has long been a gifted creator of intriguing word images that touch the mind and heart and here there are an abundance of them. This poetry and prose collection reveals her maturing voice after a life well lived and well considered. She finds in the smallest moments, and in the most profound, the connections that are there if we look deeply. The book reflects a wise and grateful soul who celebrates all of them. ~Patricia Dickinson

"Your Leadership Journey" is a comprehensive leadership development book designed specifically for emerging women leaders with emphasis on the unique leadership journey of Black women leaders. Leadership development expert Gwen Webber-McLeod shares essays and exercises that allow the reader to develop a Personal Leadership Development Plan to guide decision making about life and career goals. The book encourages women to explore the idea of living and leading in and on purpose.

SaraEve Fermin's View From the Top of the Ferris Wheel takes you by the hand and dares you to examine the funhouse mirror, to jump into the ball pit, to ride all the way to the top and reach for the stars. The poems in this collection leave no corner of her flawed mind unturned, speaking on family, dysfunction, depression, traumatic brain injury, love and life that continues despite the odds. Bold and unflinching, Fermin leans into the wind and screams feral truth with an honesty that does not close its eyes. Welcome to the carnival. Enjoy the ride.

Indian poet Das engages the reader in the beauty that abounds when one's eyes are keenly alert to the common beauty of place and human relationships. His "eye" will open your eyes and heart as your read this collection.

This powerful benediction on making ourselves safe in a precarious world: be it through war's false security or the definition of the changing new year as held in a lover's hand, draws you into the poet's universe from the first word. A celebration of those who serve and those who love them; the price that is never quite paid up yet we endure with hope for a better tomorrow.

"Hopkins' signature lyrical style draws the reader into The Shape of a Tulip Bird. Within its pages he tells the story of a couple who lose a baby to miscarriage and then lose each other in their grief. With simple yet stunning accessibility he takes us on their journey and leaves us hopeful even as we wipe tears away. For anyone who has lost a child, their family members, or mental health professionals who work with those who have, this is a must-read." Rachael Ikins, poet & author of Eating the Sun and award-winning Just Two Girls.

Christine Brooks poetry collection vibrates with poignant intensity, guiding the reader through the beauty and pain found in the ordinary and mundane. Her voice resonates within both the mind and heart of the reader.

In this chapbook, Nightengale has collected works which move the reader through a series of poems which lead us to sink our teeth into the connections between the universal world and the internal world of common human experiences. Her voice is melodic as she shows us how the natural world reflects the daily wonders of human emotions and memory.

A young boy shares an unusual dream with his family. He doesn''t want a puppy, kitten or goldfish as a pet. Instead David, or "D.C." as his big brother nicknamed him wants to adopt a pot-bellied piglet.Since David is only six years old, his parents try to discourage him. They set goals he must achieve before he can think about seriously searching for a piglet. Little do his parents and grandparents know the extent of David''s determination. With his brother''s help they spend time researching the needs of pigs online and at the library.. D.C. starts to save his allowance as well as working at odd jobs such as collecting cans and bottles to redeem. His savings and knowledge grow over two years. Then comes the magical day when his grandmother finds an ad in the newspaper "For Adoption: Pot bellied piglets."An award winning story for pig lovers of all ages, A Piglet for David shows how one  family unites to help one of its youngest members pursue what seems to be an impossible dream and then shares unique adventures because of that dream. A heartwarming story told with humor and tenderness about  following your truth and growing up.

"Nicholas Skaldetvind weaves through his verse a voice that is immediately and delightfully contemporary at the same time threads allusions to the dead poets he admires, tucked into his poems as in an urban bird''s nest. Longing for Romantic heights, his speaker''s voice is both richly mellifluous and mundanely self-deprecating-less D.H. Lawrence and more Prufrock-balancing between poignancy and humor. Some images are fresh, liquid lucidity, while at other times Skaldetvind seems to recognize that the modern poet is inevitably a tourist among the great artifacts of the language. This is a vital and worthy volume." Paul Schreiber, Poetry Editor, Two Thirds North

Jeffrey-Paul Horn''s fast paced poems in this page turning chapbook challenge the reader to examine the self in times of flux, love and loss. Horn''s use of language is imbued with a sense of urgency that propels you through this collection.

In these expressly gritty poems, Jeffrey-Paul Horn takes the reader on the exuberant flight of life with a cutting edge sense of what it means to be alive in our contemporary, urban and complicated world.