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Cruelty and abuse from his Southern past follow Jack "Half-Pint" Crowe into the Vietnam War. Two tours of combat inflict physical wounds and moral damage, but they also deliver the ministrations of a Navy corpsman named Frank-a holy being who reads mysterious books and befriends Jack, coaxing him inward toward his own wholeness. When Frank is killed in battle, an anguished Half-Pint removes three blood-stained books from Frank's shredded pack. Those books and his vow of nonviolence carry the Marine home to the swampy borderland of Louisiana and Arkansas. In that summer of return, Half-Pint plunges back into the atmosphere of hell he had longed to escape for good. Hunted by the fanatical Calvin Whitehead after offering help to his wife and son, his vow of nonviolence is challenged in the murky swamplands of the Southern grotesque. He takes refuge in his new oil rig coworkers, a misfit cast of no-gooders on the verge of insanity brought on by the harsh conditions of their job and the undying meaninglessness of a life spent cheating death amid the pulse of true American blue collar work life. It is through these folds we see the illumination of Half-Pint's evermoving quest for truth and meaning. Guided by Frank's bloodstained books, Half-Pint must shred all he knows to find the thing missing in all of us.

Brent House's debut poetry collection, The Wingtip Prophecy, augers through the soil of the American South, offering both prophetic and pastoral visions of the rural landscapes remaining on the margins of contemporary life. In a language both strangely familiar yet utterly new, House invites readers into his "neck of the woods," then cries loudly, "Behold." There's much for the eye to behold -and plenty for the ear to hear-in this collection, as we encounter "a jar filled with moonshine" and "the mantic threnody of the mockingbird." In a "field with the smoothness of vellum," we might hear sounds "wafting through the narrow rows of produce." In the midst of this pastoral setting, however, we're also being warned of "a jubilee of tolerant scars" and the "aleatory bloom [that will] deepen each fall to germination." Images and sounds overwhelm the author occasionally in these poems, but rather than succumb to silence, he sometimes chooses to speak in lists: lists of foods, lists of names, lists of places, and lists of words that once permeated his native culture. House's poems unearth the artifacts of rural America and bring them into new light. Like generations of poets from the American South-with James Dickey's influence especially evident-he offers a postage stamp portrait of a particular society, in a voice that claims its own particular sound.

The act of reading difficult texts during difficult times is the thematic element that holds these 4 authors'' poetic works together. Having met at Harvard Divinity School, Charli Pence Bond, Ethan Nosanow Levin, Abigail Grace Louisin, and Jason Adam Sheets take their deepest, most intimate connections to the truth to decipher meaning during a time of high anxiety, stress, and debilitating circumstances--the pandemic. What transpired was a creative energy where each author sought meaning through difficulty in the form of poetry--hence, this collection. What sits now before you is a reach for something brighter, truth that screams and saws, verse that transcends normality, and a collection of poetry that offers a great light to be shared with the masses. Take a deep breath. Hold these poems in. Breathe. Answers to all come in time.

In this dazzling and impressive collection, Sheets writes wonder, beauty, mystery, and awe onto what feels like a new contemporariness. Throughout the book, the poet exists as both seeker and what is sought as he examines deeply the esoteric practices that color his lens, practices such as alchemy, occultism, and Hermeticism, notably observed from a perspective of what could only be considered a dynamic poetics of being, pulsating with a linguistic tone and spirited vocabulary that serve to recall the aesthetic power of surrealism and modernism. Poems ice over and ignite in equal measure as the poet transforms image into sanctity. His declarations, often imbued with the radiant gems of a poet's personal myth-making, are equally universal in their urgency, as when he writes: We have only this much in common: we come then become keepers of things. You set fire to a wreck of dire roses and flicker like an ever-burning lamp fueled by the charm of a deeper system. This book renders a gift of fresh memory. It renews at every one of its sections the beginning of a mythologically charged human experience. If poetry has the force to activate a shift of consciousness, or mystical experience, then Sheets, who "settled effortlessly into the mantle of modern mystic" in The Hour Wasp, continues to prove with this book that he is a true poetic force.

Tim--a man on the brink. His wife, Grace, recently passed, and he, all alone to confront the world--a task too great for him, too oppressing, too--much. He told her on her deathbed that he'd wait for her signal, a signal that she'd put out from the beyond telling him when it was time for him to come join her--in death.With the past flashing before him, his tour in Vietnam and all its gruesome memories, his brother unable to return normally to civilian life after, his time with Grace, all fragmented and making for a tortured present. He gets in his truck and heads to the West Virginian holler, a place he has been before, and a place that, he hopes, his signal from Grace will appear, and the end will come. In the nearest town, he is met by life--people who intend to save him, to convince him otherwise. A local waitress hinting at future love, her brother intent on selling him canned peaches, a preacher who leads a congregation that speaks in tongues and handles snakes. Is any of it enough, close to enough, or does the signal come, too strong to deny?

10 years of hosting open mics in Nashville, Tennessee has seen some potent voices pass through Poetry in the Brew. The creative mecca of our town attracts talent from all over the planet, reflected in the pages of this anthology. Centering on the voices and topics of this momentous time, 76 contributors explore the theme of the body in terms palpable and etheric. The pivotal viewpoints in such poems as Destiny Birdsong''s "but some men call out the rapists," Tiana Clark''s "How To Write About Black People for white people," "BLACK BODY" by local spoken word sensation MAMA ., and "Hatred" along with "MY DREAM" from revered community activist K H A O S set the tone for a cathartic confrontation with our innermost selves on the public stage. This collection scalds with raw insights and applies enough sacred salve through deft verse to keep the reader reeling toward true revelation.Sinew gathers the familiar names of esteemed poets with those who have never been published before in a fresh body of work from the US, UK, Canada, Pakistan, and Australia. Edited by Poetry in the Brew host Christine Hall, the inaugural poet laureate of Hendersonville Henry L. Jones, and Jo Collins-a poet who moonlights as a government attorney-Sinew embodies the hearty artistic spirit that is at home in Nashville yet connects us across the globe.

In 33 intertwined/separate flash fiction stories, Chiatulah Ameke accomplishes the rare feat of extending the conversations of racial inequity, inequality, and their horror of a not-so-distant cousin, racism itself. Set in the backdrop of a seemingly too-close reality, some in the present and some in the near or far future, Ameke portrays a world in which houses people who do not turn a blind eye to race issues but take action, even violence, to confront a society so deeply rooted in racism. We are shown brief yet climactic clips of these lives, black lives, who can no longer hold in their deep resentment and abhorrence of being pushed into the background, as if to ask the question of not so much why but when, at what point, will the world as a whole take its own serious action against racial issues? Even though these stories are masked under the guise of satire, they still hit the mark of demanding action by showing a world where glossed-over voices can no longer be ignored. Take a trip with us and see stories unfold of the first black pope, the second black US president, a group of activists who demand reparations for families of former slaves, letters to police officers and children, and even children themselves fighting for the necessary change that must still be fought for today. Do not ignore this book. Open it up and be changed by it.

Inside, these poems will take you to a place, an edge, in the midst of the horrors of racial inequity, re George Floyd, and the ensuing attempts of disestablishing the strongholds of racial bias, discrimination, and injustice. C.I. Aki will take you there, show it to you, urge change for the world, then ask, "Is this the sole purpose of Black poetry?" And, reminding you that he is also the multitudes of the "I am," we are given the complete picture of the poet, his job, and his work. Smattered about are poems of love, poems of hope, poems of questioning with some honest, innovative answers too, and we are forced to sit, and think, and listen to the inexorable genius unveiling itself within these words. These poems are monuments, an unrelenting achievement for the modern Black poet's soul. The world is filled with beasts, but they cannot shroud entirely its beauty.

One two three four five six seven eight nine zero. Counting to zero helps Henry make sense of the world. Born with a developmental delay, bright orange hair, and one leg shorter than the other, Henry finds meaning in what he knows to be distinct truths-that life is about being even, that the canal must be finished so that the mules with red saddles will come, and sadly, that the voice in his head of his former abuser, Hiram, must be extinguished. Battling a past of being sexually assaulted, Henry must confront this voice, his inner demon, and conform his mind so that Hiram does not possess him any longer and that he can once again be even. Finding companionship with a couple of the town''s children, Henry must draw the line between playing pretend and being the person he is meant to be. In this unusual, yet important tale, we are taken on a journey that bounces between Henry''s grotesque truths, we pray alongside him as he scrubs the local church''s pews, and we hope, with all our hearts, that Henry will find the light, even after some downfalls, and especially, even in the quiet places.

This story takes place in the Prohibition-era Ozarks. Our introduction to Willie Henderson happens on a train taking him home, at long last, after a one-year stint in prison where he served time for illegally bootlegging and producing the area's finest moonshine. Upon his arrival back into Stone County, he is met by Sheriff Michael Baker, the county's new lawman who has a penchant for dismantling Stone County's storied illegal moonshining industry. Willie arrives home to find his wife, Mabel, lying in bed, sickly, with her and her young son unable to have afforded her needed medicine. With Mabel's health rapidly declining and Willie's breadth of knowledge and talent in shining, Willie is soon left with only one option-to return to his old bootlegging ways. In this highly suspenseful cat-and-mouse Southern thriller, we are taken through a series of chess moves between Willie and his nemesis, Sheriff Michael Baker. Who will outsmart the other? And who will inevitably come out on top?

Inside these pages, verses sing of light in the dark, of unearthing dark pasts and reckoning them with a resilient fervor. Kristi Carter dredges up the old, the scarred, the traumatic, and weaves a stolid face into the rising sun of tomorrow. However, scars never leave—they fade, yet they remain. We are who we are because of our families, our old friends, our former lovers who made us weak in the knees yet somehow our knees do not grow weak anymore. When our mother births us, she is supposed to hold us—she is supposed to drip candle wax over her hands as she guides us through the unknown. In this collection, we can see all that has been lost, has never been known, and because of them, their effects on the individual. Aria Viscera is a reminder that sometimes it is necessary to grab the candle from your failed mother, your failed relatives, and your darkened past and find your own way around the tricks and traps of the coming present.

THE HOUR WASP by Jay Sheets does the unspeakable.  It takes you on a journey, in three sections, through morose, sometimes tragic imagery (the ouroboros rinsed in venom / [flickering] the shape of things unshaped // no silken moments / only that which is always breaking / [something is always / breaking here]), and finds itself, in those melancholy moments of the second section some hint of a truth, of a reason, of hope, or a hope (the hour wasp awakens // & we are the things that take shape / & we let the things without shape take shape), and then, finally, we come to the final section, the send-off, the great, all-encompassing display of universal truths, using similar images, visions Mr. Sheets has experienced himself through dreams and meditations, and gives the reader the sense of understanding, almost accomplishment as she has waded through the dark along with the author and illustrator and come to find a sense of solace, one that may stand the test of time (i see the thousandth star / she looks to the thousandth star / the thousandth star is us // & i wonder if i / or anyone i  know    should be so lucky / & i light a new fire at the end of myself).

Welcome to Andermatt County. Hill country. South-central Texas. The residents walk the terrain and feel the air as if in a haze of their own self-interest. The children live in a mystical void of wonder mixed with downtrodden hopes of their lives to come.