New Releases by Pamela Porter

How does the rain sleep and where does the silence go? In her latest book of poetry, Between the Bell Struck and the Silence, Governor-General-Award-winning Pamela Porter contemplates the mysteries of existence. Porter skillfully reimagines familiar emotions: joy, loss, and healing are made new through descriptions of the flight of music, the spirits that dance between dusk and dawn, the blessings of coyotes and chickadees. Themes of Christian theology and the life and work of Van Gogh are woven throughout this rich tapestry of philosophical exploration and the healing powers of art. Between the Bell Struck and the Silence is a profound offering that delves into the essence of what it means to be an artist and to experience the striking state of being alive, with all of its joys and sorrows. With this introspective collection, Porter invites a generous appreciation for the world and life itself.

These poems featuring the brilliant, the misfit, and the music of the stars summon us into the heart of what it means to be human and passionate on this wild ride we call life on Earth. Mileva Einstein, the forgotten genius; Josef Stalin''s only daughter, as she flies off to the US; Robert Schumann, composing symphonies from an asylum; the view from Mars; horses sensing a predator; the road toward forgiveness -- in this gathering of the factual and fantastical, the lyrical and wise, a rich humanity steps forth. Pamela Porter brings her unique sensibilities, combined with an acute intelligence, a sensuous lyricism, as well as a serious wit to the poems in this collection -- all of which asks: How did you get here, and how will you get home? /

"The ways of war in the Middle Ages never cease to fascinate. There is a glamour associated with knights in shining armour, colourful tournaments and heroic deeds which appeals to the modern imagination. Because medieval warfare had its colourful side it is easy to overlook the face that war was a very serious business in an age when brute force was the recognised way of settling a quarrel, and conflict formed a normal way of life at every level of society.0This book illustrates the art of war with dozens of medieval images from books and manuscripts, and reveals a wealth of social and military background on heraldry, armour, knights and chivalry, castles, sieges, and the arrival of gunpowder.0This new edition is completely revised with a selection of new illustrations from the British Library''s medieval manuscripts."--Dust jacket.

SUPPORT YOUR STARVING AUTHOR Here I am A Nobody and I’m expecting you to buy another book. Why on earth would you buy a book from someone you have never heard of before? Because I can give you 3 good reasons why you should invest in my book. Has any other author ever done that? I don’t think so. Let me show you just why my book is worth your hard-earned money. 1.) At least one character in my book will remind you of: Yourself An In-Law An Ex-In-Law A Best Friend An Ex-Friend A Stranger you met once in your lifetime. 2.) If you will read just one chapter of my book I guarantee that you will Laugh Cry Reminisce or simply Curse yourself for spending money on another book. 3.) My final guarantee is that I can give you a practical reason to buy my book. You can add it to your Emergency Kit It will might come in handy. You can use it as a splint for a broken leg, If none of these strike a fancy then you can strike it with a match and use it as kindling. Do you need a reminder of the outhouses and used catalogs? Well my book will come in handy if you ever run out of toilet paper. Let’s face it with the way the economy is today my book might come in real handy. So Pull up a comfy chair ,grab your favorite drink, and journey with me to the hills of West Virginia where we will Laugh a while, or Cry a little bit, but rest assured we will enjoy our time together. Thanks Friend.

Poetry. Pamela Porter says of this new collection--her fifth with Ronsdale Press--"I knew then what was required--that I must carry the rest of the story." In DEFENDING DARKNESS, starting over is a constant theme as she explores what wisdom can be gained in "waiting on the heart to finish her grieving," and then to move on--across borders, through time, even into eternity. What these poems accomplish is to carry the adversity we all must endure with a kind of singing that is "older than praise, younger than light, cousin to regret, sister to fate," and finally, to declare, "We were instruments of music, every one... we sang for a season." With such singing, even darkness itself can be defended. Pamela Porter has been praised for her deeply redemptive poetry and its deceptively simple style, which has been said to "evoke the poetics of Rilke." Powerful, searing, lyrical, DEFENDING DARKNESS is surely a book to treasure.

Featuring more than 150 innovative furniture flips for every room in the house, this is a must-have guide for those looking to save money, live greener, and create unique pieces that showcase individual style. The projects can all be made in no more than a weekend and with minimal tools and skills, so projects are accessible for everyone!

In this delightful bedtime rhyme a young child bids good night to the moon, recalling all the familiar things surrounding her.

In this breathtaking collection of poems, Pamela Porter invokes the twin mysteries of love and loss to illumine the heart burdened by grief, yet comforted and renewed by the beauty of the natural world. In the long poem "Atonement," Porter takes us into a human drama, rich with astonishments: "There was no snow, but you could say the snow buried everything, and you''d be right." In simple language at once lyrical and powerful, these poems are a meditation on vulnerability -- "how fragile we are; a word shatters us" -- on nature, where plum blossoms are "kissed eyelids, moths, /the night''s numberless secrets, /little messengers that whisper, release," and on the heart''s ability to mend, even under the most difficult circumstances. To love deeply, to grieve and, ultimately, to praise, carries us into the country of possibility, where we "begin again/to name each thing: Say water. Say breath. / Say empty. Say heart," and ultimately, arrive, changed and blinking in the light.

Shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children''s Literature Prize In a small prairie town like Argue, Saskatchewan, everyone knows everybody else''s business. Everyone knows that the Lonely family has been barely hanging on - the father, George, reduced to drink and despair since the loss of his farm and the death of his wife, Margaret. That the four Loney children do not get along with George''s second wife, the pious, bitter Effie. Then George dies in a drunken stupor - locked out, it seems, by Effie to freeze to death on his own doorstep. Effie takes off with a traveling Bible salesman, and it looks as though the children are done for. Who''s to save them when everyone is coping with their own problems - the lingering depression and the loss of the town''s young men to the Second World War. Yet somehow the children find a way, under the watchful eye of their ghostly parents and through the small kindnesses of a few neighbors, but mostly by dint of their own determination and ingenuity. This is an extremely powerful novel about children at risk because of adult hypocrisy, indifference, self - interest and outright immorality, all cloaked in a self - righteous exterior. In the end they redeem their own lives by drawing good people to them and by rising to the occasion themselves. And when they at last are able to leave Argue, they do so together, as a family looking ahead to a future of promise and hope.

This stunning collection will break your heart and put it back together again, as Pamela Porter unravels a long-held family secret in a moving personal search for redemption, face to face with the question of her own identity. As she says, "It was this way when Rome was burning, / and was not so different / when dark fires flared / outside the walls of Eden." These poems brim with deep longing, remorse, the beauty of the natural world, an abiding thirst for the truth, and finally, acceptance and peace, as when there is "a choir of foxes, out from their hollow / in the early dark, / yipping, yipping and singing, / praising the bright, the unkempt world." Late Moon is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and to the transformative power of language - with Porter writing to rise "above the grief-stricken world/ and sing all night."

Shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize In a small prairie town like Argue, Saskatchewan, everyone knows everybody else’s business. Everyone knows that the Loney family has been barely hanging on -- the father, George, reduced to drink and despair since the loss of his farm and the death of his wife, Margaret. That the four Loney children do not get along with George’s second wife, the pious, bitter Effie. Then George dies in a drunken stupor -- locked out, it seems, by Effie to freeze to death on his own doorstep. Effie takes off with a traveling Bible salesman, and it looks as though the children are done for. Who’s to save them when everyone is coping with their own problems -- the lingering depression and the loss of the town’s young men to the Second World War. Yet somehow the children find a way, under the watchful eye of their ghostly parents and through the small kindnesses of a few neighbors, but mostly by dint of their own determination and ingenuity. This is an extremely powerful novel about children at risk because of adult hypocrisy, indifference, self-interest and outright immorality, all cloaked in a self-righteous exterior. In the end they redeem their own lives by drawing good people to them and by rising to the occasion themselves. And when they at last are able to leave Argue, they do so together, as a family looking ahead to a future of promise and hope.

Cathedral takes us on a journey -- a very personal journey of Pamela Porter''s own -- to Africa and South America, those corners of the world the news reports rarely seem to cover. Winner of the Governor General''s Award for The Crazy Man, Porter here gives us another book to treasure

The remarkable accomplishment of this book is that it dwells so intimately onnature in all of its facets, even the making of art, that one emerges from itwith the feeling of having been lifted into another realm.--John Skoyles.

Året er 1965 og 12 år gamle Emaline forteller om livet sitt etter ulykken, da faren ved et uhell kjørte over beina hennes med harven så hun mistet dem. Hun bor sammen med foreldrene og hunden Prince på en gård som dyrker korn. Når ulykken inntreffer, blir faren til Emaline så full av sorg og skyld at han rømmer fra Emaline og moren. Men før han stikker, skyter han Prince, som han mener var årsaken til at ulykken inntraff. Ifølge Emaline er den største sorgen at faren skjøt hunden hennes. For å få gårdsarbeidet til å gå, leier moren inn en mann fra det lokale asylet. Angus er en rødhåret kjempe som ungene erter og kaller gorilla. De voksne behandler han nærmest som et dyr. Til tross for at lokalsamfunnets fordommer overfor Angus holder på å få et tragisk utfall, er det Angus som hjelper Emaline med å forsone seg med tapet av faren. Fortellingen har en enkel tekst som rommer mye. Roman for mellom-/ungdomstrinnet.

A powerful first collection of poems which bear witness to difficult lives in Latin America, in the mining towns of the USA, in prairie families ruined by hardship and losses and incest. Pamela Porter''s poetry has both gravitas and grace, it speaks about important matters beyond the personal and domestic concerns of the writer herself, yet many of the poems fall within the personal narrative tradition. These poems are earthy and metaphysical, personal and universal, geographically and historically diverse. The details are beautifully, often hauntingly, realized. Porter keeps her own sense of outrage in check, creating startling and invasive images and refusing to trespass by bludgeoning or imposing a response on the reader. There''s an undercurrent of hope, of confidence in individuals'' capacity to survive and make meaningful lives in the wake of tragedy. We come to the end of the book disturbed, deeply stirred, but not devastated.

It is 1965, and twelve-year-old Emaline lives on a wheat farm in southern Saskatchewan. Her family has fallen apart. When her beloved dog, Prince, chased a hare into the path of the tractor, she chased after him, and her dad accidentally ran over her leg with the discer, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability. But perhaps the worst thing from Emaline''s point of view is that in his grief and guilt, her father shot Prince and then left Emaline and her mother on their own. Despite the neighbors'' disapproval, Emaline''s mother hires Angus, a patient from the local mental hospital, to work their fields. Angus is a red-haired giant whom the local kids tease and call the gorilla. Though the small town''s prejudice creates a cloud of suspicion around Angus that nearly results in tragedy, in the end he becomes a force for healing as Emaline comes to terms with her injury and the loss of her father. In the tradition of novels such as Kevin Major''s Ann and Seamus and Karen Hesse''s Out of the Dust, novelist and poet Pamela Porter uses free verse to tell this moving, gritty story that is accessible to a wide range of ages and reading abilities.

This issue of "SEDL Letter" discusses a variety of subjects, including how to improve instruction for adolescent readers and struggling readers, using literacy coaching as an approach for ongoing professional development, and how to motivate students to read. Also, a visit to Bernalillo, New Mexico, is described to acknowledge how literacy coaches have played a role in helping students at Algodones Elementary School and Bernalillo Middle School become better readers. Another article looks at the effects of Reading First in the SEDL region of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Finally, how SEDL is working with teachers in Georgia to help them turn their large numbers of Spanish-speaking students into English-language readers is described.

When the huge flood of 1964 hits their small community in Georgia and destroys everything her family ever possessed, eleven-year-old Georgia finds the rebuilding process difficult until the arrival of a wounded foal, and its incredible recovery, changes her outlook on what really matters in life. Reprint.