Plague is both metaphor and physical presence. The poems in this volume, written between January and June of 2020, address the plagues of COVID-19; racism, police brutality; and political indifference, ineptness, and malfeasance. The poems offer the hope that the first plague has taught us about the good fruits of compassion and community and that the continuing nonviolent protests in the United States over the second plague, racism, will help birth a resurrection in the hearts, minds, and souls of all Americans, a new Easter. The twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth astutely said, “The pastor and his congregation should not imagine that they are a religious society that is fixated [only] on certain themes, but that they live in this world. We do indeed need, according to my old formulation, the Bible and the newspaper.” With the poems in this volume, the author, newspaper in hand, reflects on events from January to early June 2020 and does so by integrating reflections on Scripture with current events.

Jay Hulme is an award-winning transgender poet, performer, educator and speaker. In late 2019, his fascination with old church buildings turned into a life-changing encounter with the God he had never believed in, and he was baptised in the Anglican church. In this new poetry collection, Jay details his journey through faith and baptism during an unprecedented world-wide pandemic. As he finds God in the ruined factories and polluted canals of his home city, Jonah is heckled over etymology, angels appear in tube stations, and Jesus sits atop a multi-story car park. Cathedrals are trans, trans people are cathedrals, and amidst it all God reaches out to meet us exactly where we are. Jay’s poetry explores belief in the modern world and offers a perspective on queer faith that will appeal not only to Christians, but young members of the LGBT+ community who are interested in faith but unsure of where to start.

In this urgent outpouring of American voices, our poets speak to us as they shelter in place, addressing our collective fear, grief, and hope from eloquent and diverse individual perspectives. “One of the best books of poetry of the year . . . Quinn has accomplished something dizzying here: arranged a stellar cast of poets . . . It is what all anthologies must be: comprehensive, contradictory, stirring.” —The Millions **Featuring 107 poets, from A to Z—Julia Alvarez to Matthew Zapruder—with work in between by Jericho Brown, Billy Collins, Fanny Howe, Ada Limón, Sharon Olds, Tommy Orange, Claudia Rankine, Vijay Seshadri, and Jeffrey Yang** As the novel coronavirus and its devastating effects began to spread in the United States and around the world, Alice Quinn reached out to poets across the country to see if, and what, they were writing under quarantine. Moved and galvanized by the response, the onetime New Yorker poetry editor and recent former director of the Poetry Society of America began collecting the poems arriving in her inbox, assembling this various, intimate, and intricate portrait of our suddenly altered reality. In these pages, we find poets grieving for relatives they are separated from or recovering from illness themselves, attending to suddenly complicated household tasks or turning to literature for strength, considering the bravery of medical workers or working their own shifts at the hospital, and, as the Black Lives Matter movement has swept the globe, reflecting on the inequities in our society that amplify sorrow and demand our engagement. From fierce and resilient to wistful, darkly humorous, and emblematically reverent about the earth and the vulnerability of human beings in frightening times, the poems in this collection find the words to describe what can feel unspeakably difficult and strange, providing wisdom, companionship, and depths of feeling that enliven our spirits. A portion of the advance for this book was generously donated by Alice Quinn and the poets to Chefs for America, an organization helping feed communities in need across the country during the pandemic.

This early work by Thomas Nashe was originally published in 1600 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Summer's Last Will and Testament' is an Elizabethan era stage play that broke new ground in the development of English Renaissance drama. Thomas Nashe was born in November 1567. He was an English Elizabethan Pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist, but little is known with certainty about his life. Much of the information we have has been inferred from his writings. Nashe's first appearance in print was his preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), in which he offers a brief definition of art and an overview of contemporary literature. His early exercise in euphuism The Anatomy of Absurdity was published in the same year. From then on Nashe became involved in numerous political and religious causes, including the Martin Marprelate controversy where he sided with the bishops. Nashe offers an important insight into the workings of 16th century English life and his writings will continue to be studied for both their literary content and historical relevance.

What is preserved inside these pages is not just a collection of poetry and art, but a document of the phenomenon that will change the lives of the people of Earth for several generations to come. COVID anthologies are sprouting up everywhere and are soon to be common, but what the international magazine MahMag has accomplished in this particular collection is an up-front and personal view of the effects of quarantine, the fear of infection, and death affecting little children, grade school children, teenagers, adults, doctors, scientists, teachers, and people of all walks of life; told by everyone, not just practiced poets and artists. Some of these people were driven to create as a result of lockdown; what once were side hobbies have become integral forms of expression that help individuals grapple with the daily grim reality they witness outside their window, in the news, in stories brought home by their parents and family members, some who are working on the front lines. Readers will notice common themes emerging worldwide: The Earth has taken time to heal herself. Salute to healthcare workers. We did not take care of our planet before, but now we can begin in a new way. A view from my window. Looking forward to hugging again. Accounts from countries we do not hear enough from are collected in these pages. Opening this tome, you will now meet each of them for yourself. Poems composed in other languages have been translated into English. There are over 120 poets and about 100 artists from countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Philippines, Nigeria, Tanzania, Cameroon, Sri Lanka and more, so many more. Every frame of art has been mounted on the page in order to maximize viewing. Turn the book to see large-scale horizontals. You will find names you recognize and those whom you would never know otherwise. These people are your neighbors of Earth sharing this event with you. Everyone was touched by this Plague of 2020.By: Youssef Aloui

Do we sing what we write or write what we sing? Lanegan and Eisold come together to present words of dystopian desolation. Plague Poems is a collection of 23 poems written by each, for love - lost, losing, and even sometimes found. Written in February and March of 2020, the subconscious presents a narrative of love in the end of days. Second Edition. Poetry.