Bøker av Michael Croland

"It's a poetic party on paper for Word Nerds like me, and a must-read for devotees of the form." --Brian P. Cleary, author of Bow-Tie Pasta: Acrostic Poems This outstanding anthology, the first of its kind, presents more than 80 acrostics--a storied poetic form that dates back to ancient times. In standard acrostics, the initial letters of successive lines spell out words when read vertically. This unique compilation features Lewis Carroll's verse about the namesake of his Alice character, Edgar Allan Poe's sonnet with a name arranged diagonally, Edward Lear's humorous alphabet poem, and a forty-stanza poem spelling out the Lord's Prayer. Informative chapter introductions explore acrostic legends, including Sir John Davies, who began the tradition of using the form to praise someone's name with acrostics about Queen Elizabeth I, and George Moses Horton, an African American slave who peddled produce and poems before he learned to write.

Laugh out loud with this captivating collection of more than 350 limericks. This volume features selections by legendary poets Robert Frost, Edward Lear, and Carolyn Wells; renowned writers Lewis Carroll, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mark Twain; and world leaders Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Queen Elizabeth I, and President Woodrow Wilson. A limerick is a five-line rhyming poem with a bouncy rhythm. Enjoy common varieties, including geographical and bawdy limericks, as well as tongue twisters and creative misspellings. Travel the world with a man from Nantucket and a young lady of Niger. Explore the animal kingdom with a fly and a flea in a flue and a pelican with food stuffed in his beak. Experience the mundane, such as a tooting tutor tutoring two tooters, and the peculiar, including walking around a room that has no floor. With classics from the golden age and contemporary verse, this irresistible, rib-tickling anthology has something for everyone, from humor buffs to poetry lovers.

Step inside a fascinating world of Jews who relate to their Jewishness through the vehicle of punk-from prominent figures in the history of punk to musicians who proudly put their Jewish identity front and center.Why did punk-a subculture and music style characterized by a rejection of established norms-appeal to Jews? How did Jews who were genuinely struggling with their Jewish identity find ways to express it through punk rock? Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk explores the cultural connections between Jews and punk in music and beyond, documenting how Jews were involved in the punk movement in its origins in the 1970s through the present day.Author Michael Croland begins by broadly defining what the terms "Jewish" and "punk" mean. This introduction is followed by an exploration of the various ways these ostensibly incompatible identities can gel together, addressing topics such as Jewish humor, New York City, the Holocaust, individualism, "tough Jews," outsider identity, tikkun olam ("healing the world"), and radicalism. The following chapters discuss prominent Jews in punk, punk rock bands that overtly put their Jewishness on display, and punk influences on other types of Jewish music-for example, klezmer and Hasidic simcha (celebration) music. The book also explores ways that Jewish and punk culture intersect beyond music, including documentaries, young adult novels, zines, cooking, and rabbis.