Poetry Gift Suggestion for the Holidays: Pam Mordecai's A Fierce Green Place

As you shop for Christmas gifts, consider the gift of poetry and include Pam Mordecai's A Fierce Green Place. Published by the New York indie publisher, New Directions, it is also available as an e-book and has been highly recommended by the California Review of Books as a gift suggestion.

While you are at it, check out Pam's other recent publication, de book of Joseph, which is so appropriate for the holidays. Written in the Jamaican dialect, it was published by Canadian indie publisher, Mawenzi House, and is her imagined story of Joseph's life. It is also available as an e-book.

Here are the links to purchase information on Pam's publications:  https://www.ndbooks.com/book/a-fierce-green-place/ and  mawenzihouse.com/product/de-book-of-joseph/ 

I hope you will share these great reads with friends, family, and colleagues and leave some reviews. Happy holidays, and best wishes for 2023!

Ode to Toni Morrison (and Collected Poems) by Jennifer Brown Banks

Happy National Poetry Month, 2022!

I hope that you are enjoying poetry from all around the world. In this post, I am highlighting Ode to Toni Morrison (and collected poems...) by Jennifer Brown Banks. I just purchased Jennifer's collection, and it is truly a gem. Jennifer's collection is available for purchase on Amazon. I hope you will share your feedback.

Jennifer is the creator of the award-winning blog for writers, Pen and Prosper. In her latest collection, she writes from the heart about parenting, family (in particular, the mother-child relationship), love, friendship, the Covid-19 pandemic, race, senseless violence within Black communities, among other themes. Jennifer's poems make us laugh out loud, reflect, and ponder our own emotions on the topics in the collection. Some of my favorites are: 

Silly (Circa 2005)

Sundays at Mom's Place

Ode to Toni Morrison (1931-2019)

In the Movies

On Our Watch

For Strangers Who Love Books

Parenting is Like Baking a Cake

For a Friend With Alzheimer.

I leave you with  Jennifer's Parenting is Like Baking A Cake. 

Parenting Is Like Baking A Cake

You take the best

Ingredients,

Combine,

Incorporate

With exacting measures,

Carefully

Follow directives

Add heaping helping

Of Love,

Mix,

Mold,

Hover over,

Say a silent prayer,

That your

Painstaking efforts

Will ultimately yield

Something

You can be

Proud of,

And hope

It rises.