Without Rhyme is a poignant account of the author’s life as a young girl, from growing up in a small rural town to her unexpected adventure in a foreign country that has become her home. She carefully weaves poetic lines to create images of deeply buried emotions and insights. Her poetry flawlessly captures beauty and love, joy and triumph, as well as tragedy, grief, and isolation. It celebrates the spirit of innocence and wonderment, while painting the face of struggle, passion and sacrifice. The peace she finds in the world of poetry leads to her reconciliation with her childhood’s sadness. The author takes you on an earthly journey while in search of a spiritual path.

On 29 April 1841, a week after his thirty-fourth birthday, Louis (Aloysius) Bertrand died of tuberculosis. This malady, his destitute poverty, and his errant existence qualify him as a quintessential poete maudit, whose one great work, Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantasies a la maniere de Rembrandt et de Callot, was not published until 1842. Now widely considered as the first collection of prose poems to appear in France, Gaspard inspired writers like Baudelaire, Mallarme, Huysmans, and Andre Breton. This study offers a rereading of Bertrand's book grounded in modern critical theory, including the work of Derrida, Bakhtin, Barbara Johnson, Genette, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Nancy. It elaborates a new perspective on a work that contains all the paradoxes of the genre, with which theorists still struggle.

What happens when you ask today's top songwriters to apply their talents to prose You get a surprising and diverse collection of writing as penetrating and unforgettable as your most beloved album. Like writers and poets, the best songwriters are storytellers; their words and music inspire, move, and comfort us. This wholly original collection brings together the talents of today's most accomplished songwriters in a compelling and rewarding anthology -- not of songs, but of prose. Although most of the songwriters included here have never before published a work of this kind, their talent for it is undeniable. Between these covers are pieces by David Byrne, Marc Cohn, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Joe Henry, Lyle Lovett, Steven Page, Jane Siberry, John Stewart, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Lucinda Williams, and Johnny Cash, whose daughter, Grammy winning musician and songwriter Rosanne Cash, serves as editor of this volume. Each piece is paired with the song lyric that inspired it, offering a rare glimpse into the artists creative process. Together, they comprise a fascinating collection of unique talent and creativity -- one that music fans and readers of all kinds will find hard to resist.

The instant New York Times bestseller featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon! B. J. Novak (bestselling author of The Book With No Pictures) described this groundbreaking poetry collection as "Smart and sweet, wild and wicked, brilliantly funny--it's everything a book for kids should be." Lauded by critics as a worthy heir to such greats as Silverstein, Seuss, Nash and Lear, Harris's hilarious debut molds wit and wordplay, nonsense and oxymoron, and visual and verbal sleight-of-hand in masterful ways that make you look at the world in a whole new wonderfully upside-down way. With enthusiastic endorsements from bestselling luminaries such as Lemony Snicket, Judith Viorst, Andrea Beaty, and many others, this entirely unique collection offers a surprise around every corner. Adding to the fun: Lane Smith, bestselling creator of beloved hits like It's a Book and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, has spectacularly illustrated this extraordinary collection with nearly one hundred pieces of appropriately absurd art. It's a mischievous match made in heaven! "Ridiculous, nonsensical, peculiar, outrageous, possibly deranged--and utterly, totally, absolutely delicious. Read it! Immediately!" --Judith Viorst, bestselling author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This collection of poetic reflections is a rich resource for a faithful imagination. Michael Coffey's poems explore the deep questions and joyful affirmations of Christian faith. Never settling for easy answers or straight-forward interpretations, Coffey's writing invites the reader into new spiritual territory where the strange and unexpected, the beautiful and painful, become an encounter with the holy. Anyone preparing to preach or teach on biblical texts will find here words that inspire, challenge, and create new inroads for faith. Anyone seeking meditative or devotional readings of Scripture will find a companion for thoughtful reflection and prayer. Covering most of the Sundays and primary festivals of the church's liturgical year, these writings will enrich all who plan, prepare, and participate in worship that spans the vast themes of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and the ordinary Sundays.

The words in this book were crafted and composed by a girl who knows what it means to be brokenhearted, and slowly, is learning how to be loved. I wrote this in the hopes that you might come to find you are not alone in your struggle but rather that someone else has seen what the grass looks like on the other side and is here to tell you, if it's green, it's fake. And one thing to know, even in the middle of your heartache, is how powerful you are to be able to feel things in a world that would prefer you to stay numb. You are not any less of a fighter just because you have been wounded by war. In fact, damaged people are the most dangerous opponents if for no other reason than because they've learned how to survive. Keep feeling. C.M.