Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Proving that poetry is not hard to understand or meaningful to only a few, Roger Housden has spent nearly twenty years creating poetry collections that meet the changing needs of readers. Housden has a knack for choosing poems that resonate and then writing about them in ways that prompt smiles of agreement, nods of appreciation, and wows of insight. While the poems here acknowledge the "Sorrow everywhere" (Jack Gilbert, "A Brief for the Defense") and that "The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that's a conservative estimate" (Maggie Smith, "Good Bones") they also highlight the many and diverse ways a poem, a turn of phrase, a beautifully expressed direction of our attention can turn grief to grit, anger to action, and pain to perseverance. The perfect gift for those suffering, this is also a must for the nightstand of any thinking, feeling, and human being.
Synopsis
In his bestselling Ten Poems series, Roger Housden has shown an uncanny ability to choose and discuss poems that strike at the core of readers' concerns and needs. In this new volume, ten extraordinary poems, along with Housden's incisive essays, bring heartfelt insight and broad perspective both to our personal challenges and to our cultural and collective malaise. Ten Poems for Difficult Times is the perfect gift for oneself or for anyone in need of solace and inspiration.
Ten Poems for Difficult Times
"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith
"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass
"The Quarrel" by Conrad Aiken
"Cutting Loose" by William Stafford
"Rain Light" by W. S. Merwin
"How the Light Comes" by Jan Richardson
"Now You Know the Worst" by Wendell Berry
"A Brief for the Defense" by Jack Gilbert
"It's This Way" by Nazim Hikmet
"Annunciation" by Marie Howe