Finalist for the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Poetry Book Prize.The poems of Kelly Cressio-Moeller's Shade of Blue Trees offer up an intimate surrealism, earth-born, deeply shaded, and tinted the deep blue of solitude, memory, and myth, turning "yearning's blue fire/into a dreamscape fugue." Nowhere is Cressio-Moeller's virtuosity more apparent than in the sequence of "panels." These pieces function as lyric poems, language-paintings, fairy tales, and compressed novels, somehow removed from time, with a lushness that reminds me of Flaubert-without the meanness. For instance: "A wall-eyed jay cracks a cherry's/skull against the cheekbone of dusk," and "Cornflower satin, heels on parquetry-she orders/nests for her hair to keep skylarking near, wears the/clouds on her finger to be swallowed in vapor." There are poems that walk the territory of the actual, from mother-loss, which winters the tips of the speaker's hair, to embodiment: "without my cervix I am no less queen/open me, see there's nothing left to give." Indeed this collection is evidence of a queendom that has been cultivated via solitude, loss, and time. "For years," she writes, "her poemwork involved dipping arrows/into tinctures of monkshood. Beneath her shawl of/suffering, she yearned only for two gifts: to be seen, to be understood." With the unveiling of Shade of Blue Trees, those gifts have been delivered. Diane Seuss

For millennia, our cities have prospered and grown in the cradles of civilization-fertile lands blessed with rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. From the origins of life on earth, right down to its downfall, biblical or otherwise, water has been integral to the human story. In this passionate and extensively researched tribute to the elixir that sustains us all, authors Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli take us on a panoramic view of the water bodies of India and the urgent need to address their emergent ecological threats. From the Yamuna in Delhi to the Cauvery in Karnataka and the Pichola Lake in Udaipur to the Brahmaputra in Assam, this book is epic in its sweep and yet deeply moving in its intimate concerns. Interspersed with anthropological, legal and scientific vignettes of the water are fascinating anecdotes, ditties, myths and monsters blue and green. This book also brings into dialogue a vast range of colourful characters-from medieval poets to colonial masters and modern scientists-to paint for us a tapestry of connected histories and ring a timely knell for saving the very ecological systems that have sustained us for ages.

Shades of Blue are everywhere in our lives. From the open sky to the rolling ocean, the different shades amount to unique characteristics and depths of vision. New authors Charles and Anne Glogowski invite you to join them as they sail into God's glory seeking 'Plots of Gold, ' and finding God's hand in their everyday lives. Shades of Blue brings the reader from the darkest shades of blue-grays of life into the transforming shades of bright blue leading them to the shores of God's glory, while threads of gold weave in and out through the hidden mysteries. By sharing in the revelations of God to His people through their own personal testimonies, Charles and Anne show the truth of God's live in prose and poetry, helping readers find their own Shades of Blue in this encouraging, inspiring witness of the extraordinary in the ordinary

Set includes revised editions of some issues.

Because her mother wants her to be part of the world of high society in their native Puerto Rico, nine-year-old Teresa attends a private school but loses her best friend.

Beloved author Sheila Williams beautifully captures the bittersweet humor and vivid adventures of women who survive the worst life can toss at them—and fight back to claim their right to be free, to be themselves, and to live in . . . The courage to change doesn’t come easy. When Opal Sullivan walks out on an abusive husband after fifteen years, she has only her dreams in her pocket. Her new beginning starts in Appalachian River country, where she sees a bit of herself in a graceful but dilapidated house. Like Opal, the house is worn-out and somewhat beaten up, but it still stands proudly and deserves a second chance. So Opal opens her doors—and her heart—to a parade of unforgettable characters. There’s sassy Bette Smith with her cantaloupe-colored hair and four-inch heels; short-tempered Gloria and her devilish son, Troy; the mysterious Dana, who dresses in black and keeps exclusively nocturnal hours; a dog named “Bear” who is afraid of his own shadow; and Jack, who doesn’t mind hanging out with an OBBWA (old black broad with an attitude). It is Jack who helps Opal understand a funny thing about life: You can’t move forward if you keep looking back. . . .