Wonder of Small Things - Poems of Peace and Renewal

From the editor of the bestselling poetry anthologies How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness, a collection of accessible, uplifting poetry celebrating the small wonders and peaceful moments of everyday life.

As James Crews writes in the introduction: "Wonder opens our senses and helps us stay in touch with a humbling sense of our own human smallness in the face of unexpected beauty and the delicious mysteries of life on this planet."

The anthology features a foreword by Nikita Gill and a carefully curated selection of poems from a diverse range of authors, including Native American poets Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Kimberly Blaeser, and Joseph Bruchac, and BIPOC writers Ross Gay, Julia Alvarez, and Toi Derricotte. Crews features new poems from popular writers such as Natalie Goldberg, Mark Nepo, Ted Kooser, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, and Jacqueline Suskin, along with selections from emerging poets.

Readers are guided in exploring the meaning and essence of the poems through a series of reflective pauses scattered through the pages and reading group questions in the back. This anthology offers the perfect intersection for the growing number of readers interested in mindful living and bringing poetry into their everyday lives.

A New England Book Award Winner
A USA Today Bestseller

 

List of contents

Foreword, Nikita Gill
What Brings Us Alive, James Crews

Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
Ted Kooser, In Early April
Paula Gordon Lepp, Can You Hear It?
Ellen Rowland, What Branches Hold
James Crews, Awe
Albert Garcia, Ice
Andrea Potos, Crocheting in December
James Armstrong, First Snow
Diana Whitney, Cathedral
Joseph Bruchac, Tutuwas
   Reflective Pause: Let Wonder Guide You
Rita Dove, Horse and Tree
Michael Kleber-Diggs, The Grove
Toi Derricotte, Cherry Blossoms
Julia Alvarez, Locust
Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Lately
Maggie Smith, First Fall
Nikita Gill, The Forest
Kai Coggin, Essence
January Gill O'Neil, For Ella
Ross Gay, Sorrow Is Not My Name
   Reflective Pause: A Time for Everything
Mark Nepo, Under the Temple
Marjorie Saiser, Crane Migration, Platte River
Ellen Rowland, The Way the Sky Might Taste
Lorna Crozier, First Kiss
Alison Prine, Long Love
James Crews, Here with You
Alison Luterman, Heavenly Bodies
Jacqueline Jules, The Honeybee
   Reflective Pause: Choosing Peace
AE Hines, What Did You Imagine Would Grow?
Rachel Michaud, Crossing Over
Mark Nepo, Stopped Again by the Sea
Carolyn Chilton Casas, Ocean Love
Angela Narciso Torres, Self-Portrait as Water
George Bilgere, Swim Lessons
Rudy Francisco, Water
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Belonging
Danusha Laméris, Dust
Li-Young Lee, To Hold
Holly Wren Spaulding, Primitive Objects
Donna Hilbert, Ribollita
Ada Limon, Joint Custody
Lucy Griffith, Attention
   Reflective Pause: The Place of Attention
Peg Edera, Harbors of Miracle
Natalie Goldberg, Home
Rebecca Baggett, Chestnut
Zeina Azzam, Hugging the Tree
Linda Hogan, Home in the Woods
Danusha Laméris, Nothing Wants to Suffer
   Reflective Pause: The Awe of Aliveness
Kimberly Blaeser, The Way We Love Something Small
Brooke McNamara, Listen Back
Michelle Wiegers, Slow Down
Joshua Michael Stewart, November Praise
Susan Varon, The Gentle Dark
Jacqueline Suskin, Sunrise, Sunset
Joanne Durham, Sunrise Sonnet for My Son
Meghan Dunn, Ode to Butter
Robbi Nester, Rot
Naomi Shihab Nye, Little Farmer
James Crews, Tomatoes
Sarah Wolfson, What I Like About Beans
Susan Musgrave, Tomatoes on the WIndowsill After Rain
Mary Jo LoBello Jerome, Tomato Intuition
Leah Naomi Green, Carrot
   Reflective Pause: Nothing for Granted
Jessica Gigot, Amends
Lahab Assef Al-Jundi, What the Roses Said to Me
Rage Hezekiah, Layers
Dorianne Laux, My Mother's Colander
Sue Ann Gleason, Ask Me
Paola Bruni, The Lesson
Meghan Sterling, Chickadee
Faith Shearin, My Daughter Describes the Tarantula
Laura Foley, Lost and Found
Joy Harjo, Redbird Love
Kim Stafford, Wren's Nest in a Shed Near Aurora
Sharon Corcoran, Encounter
José A. Alcántara, Archilochus Colubris
Emilie Lygren, Meditation
Margaret Hasse, Art
Mark Nepo, Art Lesson
Cristina M.R. Norcross, Breathing Peace
Caroline Webster, Expecting
Mark Nepo, The Clearing
Laura Foley, What Stillness
   Reflective Pause: The Gift of Stillness
Lisa Zimmerman, Lake at Night
Joseph Bruchac, Birdfoot's Grampa
Heather Swan, Boy
Nikita Gill, Your Soft Heart
Joyce Sutphen, From Out the Cave
Marilyn McCabe, Web
Anne Evans, A New Variant
Barbara Crooker, This Summer Day
Ted Kooser, A Glint
Derek Sheffield, For Those Who Would See
   Reflective Pause: Winks of Calm
Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Aubade
Kim Stafford, Advice from a Raindrop
Danusha Laméris, Let Rain Be Rain
Nina Bagley, Gathering
Stuart Kestenbaum, Holding the Light
Alberto Rios, The Broken
Alfred K. LaMotte, Gentle
Patricia Clark, Creed
Michael Simms, Sometimes I Wake Early
Marjorie Moorhead, Head in the Clouds
Joseph Fasano, Letter
Penny Harter, Just Grapefruit
Jane Kenyon, In Several Colors
Kathryn Petruccelli, Instinct
Terri Kirby Erickson, Goldfinch
Ada Limon, It's the Season I Often Mistake
Katherine J. Williams, Late August, Lake Champlain
Laura-Ann Reed, Fortitude
Nathan Spoon, Poem of Thankfulness
Annie Lighthart, Let This Day
   Reflective Pause: Let It Change
Laura Grace Weldon, Common Ground
Rena Priest, Tour of a Salmonberry
Rosalie Sanara Petrouske, True North
Connie Wanek, Talking to Dad
Tyler Mortensen-Hayes, After the Heartbreak
Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, The Listening Bridge
Brad Peacock, A Morning in Thailand
Julia Fehrenbacher, The Only Way I Know to Love the World
Jacqueline Suskin, How to Fall in Love with Yourself
Brad Aaron Modlin, One Candle Now, Then Seven More
Judith Chalmer, Pocket
Adele Kenny, Survivor
Lois Lorimer, Rescue Dog
Yvonne Zipter, Seeds
David Mook, Milkweed
Bradford Tice, Milkweed
Jane Hirshfield, Solstice
Julie Cadwallader Staub, Reverence
Jennifer G. Lai, In My Mind's Coral, Mother Still Calls Us from Inside
   Reflective Pause: Worlds of Wonder
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Latent
Charles Rossiter, Transformation
Tony Hoagland, Field Guide
Rage Hezekiah, Lake Sunapee
January Gill O'Neil, How to Love

Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion
Poet Biographies
Credits
Acknowledgments

About the author

James Crews is the editor of several bestselling poetry anthologies, including The Wonder of Small Things, The Path to Kindness, and How to Love the World, which has over 100,000 copies in print, Healing the Divide, and is the author of is the author of the essay collection, Kindness Will Save the World. He has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and in People Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and The Washington Post. He is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry, and his poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, and other journals. Crews lives with his husband in the woods of Southern Vermont. jamescrews.net

Summary

The editor of the bestselling poetry anthologies How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness presents a collection of highly accessible, uplifting poetry celebrating the small wonders and peaceful moments of everyday life.

Foreword

The editor of the bestselling poetry anthologies How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness presents a collection of highly accessible, uplifting poetry celebrating the small wonders and peaceful moments of everyday life.

Product details

• Authors: James Crews, Crews James
• Assisted by: Nikita Gill (Foreword)
• Publisher: Workman Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.09.2023
• EAN: 9781635866445
• ISBN: 978-1-63586-644-5
• No. of pages: 224
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Inspirational & Religious, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Nature, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Animals & Nature, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Religious