"Katie Ford's is a finely-wrought lyrical beauty, a poetry of detail and care, but she has set it within an epic arc." —Poetry I lie still, play dead, am delivered decree: our daughter weighs seven hundred dimes, paperclips, teaspoons of sugar, this child of grams for which the good nurse laid out her studies as a coin purse into which our tiny wealth clinked, our daughter spilling almost to the floor. —from "Of a Child Early Born" In Katie Ford's third collection, she sets her music into lyrics wrung from the world's dangers. Blood Lyrics is a mother's song, one seared with the knowledge that her country wages long, aching wars in which not all lives are equal. There is beauty imparted, too, but it arrives at a cost: "Don't say it's the beautiful / I praise," Ford writes. "I praise the human, / gutted and rising."

A Jehovah's Witness is stabbed in her home by a stranger she once allowed in. A homeless woman masturbates on a park bench. A statue of the Virgin Mary, "plaster receptacle of petitions and foolish pleas," is found in a dump, a missing hand suggesting the sound of a one-handed rosary. Through images brutally honest and disarmingly off-center, Dixie Salazar explores the hidden lives of everyday people, objects, and experiencesÑand their transformation in the hidden realms of the heart. Charting furious descents into the darkest crevices of our souls, Salazar paints for us a lost city that exists below our mundane consciousness. Blood Mysteries is a tribute to lost souls, from a suicidal mental patient who doesn't believe she existsÑ"melting out of a landscape spotted with shadows, washing her hands in an empty basin of light"Ñto Marilyn Monroe, victim even in the morgue. In finely tuned lyricism showing an uncanny grasp of frayed lives, she gives flesh and vitality to women normally encountered only as statistics. The incarcerated, the homeless, the hopeless. Missing young girls who turn up violated and murdered. Salazar presents us with blood mysteries not only of women, but of family as well. In poems invoking her dual heritage, she explores the identity crises brought on by having a Spanish father and a mother from the deep South, leaving her a product of American meltdown with a predisposition to check "other" for race on applications. "Other can be a place," she reminds us, "a residence for those of us without / papers, where halos of lightning bugs / swarm the rickety family tree." Salazar writes with toughness and grit "for all the shipwrecked saints / and wretches among us." But beneath the surface of words sometimes gritty, sometimes playful, lies a testament to the power of empathy, giving voice to those whose voices have been stifled and offering hope for those who have found none. Blood Mysteries is a forceful prayer for the disenfranchised that offers not merely hope, but transcendence.

Slayer's controversial Reign in Blood remains the gold standard for extreme heavy metal: a seamless procession of 10 blindingly fast songs in just 28 minutes, delivered in furious bursts of an instrumental precision, with lyrics so striking that Tori Amos was moved to record a cover.

A Mighty Weapon of Spiritual Warfare You know that “there’s power in the blood,” just like the old hymn says—but are you actually experiencing that power in your daily life? Join H. A. Maxwell Whyte in this revealing exploration of the blessings to be found in Christ’s blood. As you delve deep into this newly revised and expanded version of Whyte’s classic best seller, you will find out how to… Experience God’s complete forgiveness Become spiritually empowered, equipped, and energized Break the terrifying grip of fear and torment Create an atmosphere for miracles Defeat oppression, addictions, and sickness Astounding results can take place in your life once you learn the value of this vital yet little-wielded weapon in the believer’s arsenal and how God wants us to use it in coping with life’s difficult situations. Discover the wonder-working power of the blood for yourself!

PONGS ‘N SOEMS Pongs: Could be Songs and Soems: Could be Poems PONGS ‘N SOEMS is a 60-year collection of PONGS (could-be songs) and SOEMS (could-be poems) but all are lyrics. This work is aimed at the individual looking for material his/her next million seller. As well, this compilation will speak to songwriting/poem writing hobbyists. It endeavours to encourage journaling thoughts, ideas, notions no matter how initially insignificant they seem. Yes, perhaps the multi-million-seller song awaits you, the reader, to pen it. If not that, then one may ignite a flair for writing anything from simple lyrics to free verse poetry of the loftiest kind. Herein between the covers lie several melodies which the guitarist can play. On youtube (type in Frederick Mundle youtube) you can see and hear how some PONGS became studio recorded songs and how some SOEMS ended up being set to music. This author’s pastime netted him some incredible collaborating connections musically from Chicago, to Detroit, Windsor and Toronto, ON, Montreal, PQ, as well as from Eastern NB and Gaspe, PQ.

Every day is a gift. We can choose to believe in God’s great goodness and love towards us or become so burdened with life and its struggles that we forget how near He is. We can lose heart. The Ordinary and the Almighty is a daily reminder that we are preciously honored and loved by God. It is a refresher for the soul. Come away!

Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality brings together a collection of original, interdisciplinary, critical essays exploring the negotiated place of gender and sexuality in heavy metal music and its culture. Scholars debate the current state of play concerning masculinities, femininities, queerness, identity aesthetics and monstrosities in an area of music that is sometimes mistakenly treated as exclusively sustaining a masculinist hegemony. The book combines a broad variety of perspectives on the main topic, regarding gender in connection to: the history of the genre; the range of metal subgenres; heavy metal's multidimensional scope (music, lyrics, performance, style, illustrations); men and women; sexualities and various local and global perspectives. Heavy Metal, Gender and Sexuality is a text that opens up the world of heavy metal to reveal that it is a very diverse and ground-breaking stage where gender play is at the centre of its theatricality and sustains its mass appeal.