Books published by Terrapin Books

Emily Franklin''s Tell Me How You Got Here is rich with the objects of this world-a stray sneaker on the highway, a garage-sale skillet, "damp frogs small as grapes"-ordinary things and situations revealed as extraordinary, thanks to her original vision and precise language. That most overworked and least understood muscle, the human heart, is the great filter through which these objects pass and accrue their startling beauty. At the end of the book, Franklin returns us to the world, and returns the world to us, redeemed. What more could we ask for from poetry?-Beth Ann Fennelly, Poet Laureate of Mississippi, 2016-2020

"A debut collection of poetry. Many poems related to Nature"--

The subjects of poetry are the same: love and loss, sex and death and grief, family in all its permutations and complications. The differences are in the telling, and Kory Wells is a powerful teller. Her poems are as layered and dense as her grandmother's Red Velvet cake. What is it, she asks, that makes us want to swallow // a story whole? To think // only one version can be true? With a clear eye, she confronts the paradoxes that gender, race, and heritage present. She writes from a rootedness in her homeland that reaches down generations. She writes as a citizen of this troubled world: I'm unlearning the urge for a sugar fix like I'm unlearning // my threshold for what is acceptable, terrible, commonplace. // Tell me I don't have to unlearn hope. She does what we ask of the poet. All that we ask. -Marie Harris, former New Hampshire Poet Laureate

How can I-or anyone-not adore David Graham's new collection? The tone throughout is hospitable, wry, and affirming even while acknowledging that loss and suffering are ever present. The honey of earth "comes and goes at once," Wallace Stevens wrote, and these poems embody that paradox in vivid detail and compelling language. The sweetness that life offers-love, art, music, family, nature-exists simultaneously with the bitterness it guarantees-pain, grief, death. Both coming and going, The Honey of Earth deftly weaves "darkness and light together" with great wisdom, humor, and compassion. -Eric Nelson

A kiss is never just a kiss-heat-seeking, information bearing, coded. In this inspired collection, poet and editor Diane Lockward has assembled over 100 poems about kisses written by many of our best contemporary poets. You'll find kisses longed for, kisses auditioned, kisses rehearsed. Ritualistic kissing. Delicious kissing. Kissing that comforts the grieving. Kissing that blesses a union … Kisses in this anthology may be romantic or funny or comforting or erotic or mournful-and more … We may hope that kissing always begins in delight and keeps on being delightful. But the truth, of course, is otherwise. This is, after all, a constellation of kisses … May there be no end to the most genuine kisses, the right kisses, the ones that are good and meant for us to savor. And while we're at it, let's wish for no end to poems about kissing. (from the Foreword by Lee Upton)

Departing from the more whimsical tone of A Glossary of Chickens, Whitehead's last book, this new collection explores, among other subjects, childlessness in middle age, the vicissitudes of divorce, the pain of parental aging, and the mystery of mortality. Laden with regret and misgiving, but illuminated by glimmers of hopefulness and joy, the poems flow organically and without sections, one building on the other with thematic or linguistic links, moving from silence to song, from a corrupted flower to "the force / of the crossing when the humming ceases."

Organized into ten sections with each devoted to a poetic concept, The Practicing Poet begins with "Discovering New Material," "Finding the Best Words," "Making Music," "Working with Sentences and Line Breaks," "Crafting Surprise," and "Achieving Tone." The concepts become progressively more sophisticated, moving on to "Dealing with Feelings," "Transforming Your Poems," and "Rethinking and Revising." The final section, "Publishing Your Book," covers manuscript organization, book promotion, and presentation of a good public reading.The book includes thirty brief craft essays, each followed by a model poem and analysis of the poem's craft, then a prompt based on the poem. Ten recyclable bonus prompts are also included. Ten Top Tips lists are each loaded with poetry wisdom from an accomplished poet The Practicing Poet pushes poets beyond the basics and encourages the continued reading, learning, and writing of poetry. It is suitable as a textbook in the classroom, a guidebook in a workshop, or an at-home tutorial for the practicing poet working independently. The craft essays, poems, and top tips lists include the work of 113 contemporary poets.

In these sparkling poems, Diane Lockward takes life as it comes and finds nourishment in it all: succulence of the peach, redolence of the pear, the green grape of sorrow. I love these poems for their craft, sensuality and energy. Like high-wire acts of language and imagination, they almost leap in the air and come down again on the wire, balancing between witty and dark, personal and invented, idea and emotion.Patricia Fargnoli, former Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

Cognizant of loss but always celebratory, Lockwards poems are irreverent, ravenous for the world, and unabashedly female. When. In Losing the Blues, she writes, I could burn / the hands off a man, you have no doubt that she is singing a true song. --- Kim Addonizio

The gorgeous poems of Michael T. Young's The Infinite Doctrine of Water offer the rewards of deep reflection. The poet's sharp eye and attentive ear capture the delicate light and shadow of urban life and personal memory. New York and Jersey City provide the backdrop for subtle yet incisive meditations, as when "Devotional" portrays the Belt Parkway's approach to the Verrazano Bridge through a vivid moment of grace where "ranks of waves / wear breakers like medals of impermanence." In Young's hands, time's transience is enacted through quick shifts and sudden epiphanies in poems that are radiant, deeply felt, and always beautifully crafted. -Ned Balbo

Open this book at random and find a trove of thrilling images and unexpected metaphors: tiny bells jingling like sins, ';a cool lake of indifference,' ';an impossible wheel of hunger.' Read this book beginning to end and discover a dark trajectory, the work required to integrate one's family of origin with a wider consciousness and responsibility. As have those in Geraldine Connolly's previous books, these poems fly. But equipped with the acute sensitivity of an aileron, they fly higher and more daringlyexposing for us our own ';beating heart, its thump and clamor.' This is the work of a gifted poet at the height of her powers. Natasha Saje

Editors Jason Lee Brown and Shanie Latham selected fifty-four poems by fifty-one poets, happily including Denise Duhamel, Jack Bedell, Mira Rosenthal, Martha Silano, Julian Stannard, Charles Harper Webb, and others. With all poets singing together, we have a rainbow of wordsalive, nourishing, richthat clearly define the range and power of the once humble doughnut. Poetry and confection make for a delicious marriage. And who knew we'd live to see sugar, fat, and dough connected to the divine? Grace Cavalieri, Introduction

A poetry tutorial to inform and inspire poets. Includes model poems and prompts, writing tips, and interviews contributed by 56 of our nation’s finest poets, including 13 former and current state Poets Laureate. An additional 45 accomplished poets contributed sample poems inspired by the prompts in this book. Ideal for use in the classroom, this book has been adopted by colleges and universities across the country. It is equally ideal for individual use at home or for group use in workshops. Geared for the experienced poet as well as those just getting started. Guaranteed to break through any writer's block.This revised edition contains a full Table of Contents and an Index.

How do we move forward after enormous loss? Perhaps like the lightning-struck tree, "half of it shorn of leaves the other half full, standing, / swaying…." In these beautiful, intimate poems spoken from the heart of grief, the speaker urges herself not to flinch, "letting the knife settle where it will, / blade nestled between a rib and a rib." Life and death go hand and hand here, and the natural world that consoles is also a constant reminder of our own mortality. Because Clark is a terrific poet, she can also make something true and moving "out of cold air…with lamenting words…an invigorating, heel-kicking tune." -Sharon Bryan, Sharp Stars

Why do dolls compel us so much? What are their meanings? What lessons do they have to teach us? The Doll Collection explores these questions. This wonderful anthology of poems asks us to rethink dolls. Not just toys, dolls signify much more than childhood. Dolls shape our thinking about the female body, about race and class. Dolls influence our understanding of childhood. Symbols of perfection, they both comfort and terrify. Dolls represent, as Freud would say, the "uncanny." They are replicas, simulacra, souvenirs and secrets. They are objects we recall with intense nostalgia but also bodies we dismember and destroy. They might be made of cornhusks, clay, rags, paper, cloth, wood, porcelain, celluloid, bisque, plastic, or metal. For centuries, dolls have taught us how to understand our world and are windows to other worlds. Dolls are portals to our pasts and to ourselves. Dolls open the doors to our imagination. (from the Introduction, by Nicole Cooley)The Doll Collection, the first anthology to focus on dolls, includes 88 poems by such poets as Michael Waters, Cecilia Woloch, Alice Friman, Lee Upton, Chana Bloch, Kelly Cherry, and Jeffrey Harrison.

Like the original, The Crafty Poet II is organized into ten sections. We again end with "Revision," but this time we also begin with it in "Revising Your Process." That section is followed by one on "Entryways into Poems" which considers how a poet might get going with a poem and how a poet might pull in a reader with humor and enticing titles. There is in-depth discussion of the importance of choosing the right words; using syntax, line breaks, and spacing to advantage; and enhancing the music of poems. There is a meaty section on how to add complication to your poems, another on how to divert or transform your poems from their original intention, and another on special forms of poems. In "Expanding the Material" three poets consider how to write poetic sequences using paintings, photographs, and history. The final section, "Revision," moves beyond the usual advice to “get rid of adjectives” as one poet offers ways to revise via sound, another offers a series of expansion strategies, and, finally, poet Dick Allen issues a warning against excessive revision.All ten sections include three craft tips, each provided by an experienced, accomplished poet. Each of these thirty craft tips is followed by a Model poem and a Prompt based on the poem. Each model poem is used as a mentor, again expressing the underlying philosophy of the first book that the best teacher of poetry is a good poem. You will find that the model poems receive more analysis than in the first book and that the prompts are a bit more challenging. Each prompt is followed by two Sample poems which suggest the possibilities for the prompts and should provide for good discussion about what works and what doesn’t. Each section includes a Poet on the Poem Q&A about the craft elements in one of the featured poet’s poems. Each section concludes with a Bonus Prompt, each of which provides a stimulus on those days when you just can’t get your engine started.