Best of Button Week 386

“My soon-wife asks if we should bury a gun in the front yard, which is perhaps the opposite of a grave. A tombstone buried underneath the ground, waiting to be inscribed with a name.”

Don’t miss this week’s Best of Button playlist, featuring the top-viewed recent videos on the Button YouTube Channel. Today’s addition: Phil Kaye! Congrats Poet!

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Dave Harris, George Abraham, Natasha T. Miller, Porsha Olayiwola, L.E. Bowman, Andrea Gibson, Rachel Wiley, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Jon Sands – “Even If”

Performing at McNally Jackson Books

“You’re a stupid dumbass and it’s lovely and terrible, and the only person you get to be. So even if you don’t have the land, pick up the shovel, then let it go.”

Don’t miss this awesome poem from Jon Sands, performing at McNally Jackson Books in Brooklyn, NY

Get Jon’s fantastic book, The New Clean.

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Dave Harris, Porsha Olayiwola, Ebony Stewart, Andrea Gibson, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Steven Willis – “The Hustle Speaks”

Performing at the Button Studio

“I supply everything, even the pipe dreams. That’s why ballplayers pass the ‘rock’ and the rappers ‘cook it up’ in the lab. I’m the ‘base’line in that jazz, the ‘rock’ in their roll and I’m always in the background when shit goes up in ‘smoke.’”

Don’t miss this powerful poem from Steven Willis, performing at the Button Studio in Minneapolis, MN

Get Steven’s phenomenal book, A Peculiar People.

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Dave Harris, Porsha Olayiwola, Ebony Stewart, Andrea Gibson, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Taylor Mali

TAYLOR MALI is a spoken word poet, teacher advocate, and game designer from New York City. His poetry is both accessible and literary, and even though he was once told he was “just like Billy Collins except even worse,” Billy Collins himself calls Taylor Mali a “poet of unique properties whose performances are leavened by charm and wit.” Mali is a four-time National Poetry Slam champion and one of the original poets to appear on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. The author of five collections of poetry and a book of essays on teaching, he is also the inventor of Metaphor Dice, a game that helps writers think more figuratively. He lives in Brooklyn where he is the founding curator of the Page Meets Stage reading series at the Bowery Poetry Club.

Make sure to follow Metaphor Dice on Instagram and Facebook!

L.E. Bowman 1-Year Bookiversary!

It’s the 1-Year Bookiversary of What I Learned from the Trees by L.E. Bowman, Button Poetry Short Form Contest WINNER

We have LIMITED signed copies!

AND $8 OFF paperbacks, eBooks, & audiobooks with code TREES.

SHOP BOWMAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

What I Learned from the Trees delves into the intricate relationship between humans and nature, and how these often overlooked, everyday interactions affect us as individuals, families, and communities. With a backbone rooted in primordial imagery and allegory, and a focus on how the growing disconnect with our own wants, needs, and fears creates deeper divides in our relationships, this collection is notably relevant to today’s society and the struggles we face with the ever-expanding detachment between humans and the natural world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

L.E. Bowman was born and raised among the Gulf of Mexico marshes and sweeping oaks of north Florida. After falling in love with writing at a young age, Lauren decided to pursue a minor in Creative Writing from Florida State University, where she focused more on short stories, essays, and technical writing until, feeling the need to better understand who she was, where she was going, and what she wanted from life, she began to explore the power of poetry.

Her debut collection of poetry and prose, The Evolution of a Girl, was born from this period of exploration, growth, and discontent that so many of us face while attempting to understand where we fit into this world. Her second collection of poetry, What I Learned from the Trees, delves into the intricate relationship between humans and nature, and how these often overlooked, everyday interactions affect us as individuals, families, and communities.

SALE ENDS 9.18.22

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Dave Harris, Porsha Olayiwola, Ebony Stewart, Andrea Gibson, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre – “Why Do You Write Poems When Death is All Around Us?”

Performing at the Button Studio

“You can’t ‘beat’ death, you can only dance a little more slippery, drum a little more timelessly, hold that note beyond your breath, and hope to find a home in its echo.”

Don’t miss this great poem from Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre, performing at the Button Studio in Minneapolis, MN

Get Kyle’s fantastic book, NOT A LOT OF REASONS TO SING, BUT ENOUGH.

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Dave Harris, Porsha Olayiwola, Ebony Stewart, Andrea Gibson, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Best of Button Week 385

“Mr. Powell was a perv but I did not mind at all, because he seemed more lonely than creepy and I think those are totally different things.”

Don’t miss this week’s Best of Button playlist, featuring the top-viewed recent videos on the Button YouTube Channel. Today’s addition: Adam Falkner! Congrats Poet!

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Dave Harris, George Abraham, Natasha T. Miller, Porsha Olayiwola, L.E. Bowman, Andrea Gibson, Rachel Wiley, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Jason Bayani – “Kein/Muenchen”

Performing at Button Poetry Live

“Maybe when we say ‘love,’ what we mean is ‘a safe place to fall apart.’”

Don’t miss this fantastic poem from Jason Bayani, performing at Button Poetry Live in May 2019

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, including books by Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Dave Harris, Porsha Olayiwola, Ebony Stewart, Andrea Gibson, and our newest release from Topaz Winters!