Poetry

Born in Ankara in 1961, Zafer Senocak has lived in Germany since 1970. Over the years, he has become a leading voice in the German discussions on multiculturalism and national identity. His volume of essays Atlas of the Tropical Germany is currently included on the American Association of University Professors list of books to further our understanding of issues surrounding 9/11.

Between 1996 and 2000, Senocak was writer-in-residence at four US universities and was a featured author at the 2007 PEN World Festival in New York City. Door Languages contains material from four of Senocak's recent German collections.

"His Story"

Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright's translations of contemporary German poets have been featured in numerous journals. She was the winner of Agni's William J. Arrowsmith Translation Award, and she has received fellowships from the NEA, the American Literary Translators Association, and the University of Arkansas Fulbright College. A selection of her translations of Zafer Senocak appeared in the PIP Anthology of World Literature of the 20th Century (Green Integer) and in the 2007 Zoland Poetry annual.

This book titled End Time Bee Poems was written first from the inspiration of my Lord Jesus Christ, who kept the theme of bees through my life and also with the inspiring help of close "fellow worker bee" friends. They have added memorable quotes, visions, and enlightenment with shared stories and experiences. Besides being called "Bee" as a nickname most of my life, it also adapted to "Auntie Bee" and then "Grambee" and also, at times, "Queen Bee." This is how the poems came to be known as "Bee Poems," which became like my own signature for each poem.

I learned a few things about bees and how they work together side by side with a dedication to the hive and the queen bee. Not taking glory in their own works but bringing about the glory of the hive. I found there were many things about the life of bees that paralleled with my spiritual walk. The Lord did not direct me to do much research in regard to bees, but He taught me just what I needed to know that would be relevant to what the poems would be about. I learned that worker bees actually worked while in rest. The subject of entering God's rest is mentioned in many a poem. It was imperative that this message was communicated as the main difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

I was inspired also to add to the title "end time." An urgency of how these times we live in with prophecies of end time happenings coming to pass became the fuel behind getting the poems written. The first poem in the book, "The Bees," was actually one of the last poems written now used as a kind of an introduction of the poems that would follow.

"Spoken word artist, Clarise Annette Brooks has captured her bold and powerful thoughts and ideas on paper in her new book, Excuse Me While I Live My Life. Her themes of mindfulness and responsibility will resonate with readers striving to build a better life for themselves and their surrounding community."

-Hugh Minor, Hey Rhody Magazine

Clarise Annette Brooks is proud to have had a multi-decade career as an educator. Stemming from Queens, New York, she currently lives in Rhode Island with her husband Alexander, their two children Alexa Claire and Daniel Gervais, and their dog, Percy.

Writing has always been a love of hers and she is pleased to share her first book with you

In her free time she enjoys baking, going for long walks beside the ocean, watching old movies and documentaries, browsing through bookstores, listening to interesting podcasts, travelling, and of course, reading poetry.

In his long-awaited second book of poems, Quintin Prout re-invents, in the spirit of our truest poets, the common language of English speakers to meet his needs in expressing his experience. In fact, he goes as far as to re-assign words their parts of speech, as his experience requires. In his hands, the noun fatherhood becomes a verb. As is the case with so much in this world that is "assigned" (race, sex, and so on), the language on the tip of our tongue has to tell the truth that lies in the heart; thus fatherhood is not a thing but a verb, active and even transformative. Such a "reassignment" affirms our freedom to be ourselves, as poetry at its best always does, within the limits of our common language. As father and daughter interact in poem after poem, this witty, heartfelt, instructive book shows us fatherhood in action, and the lucky reader who happens on it will be grateful for its exemplary, original voice.