Cyber Monday at Literary Revelations – Shop our Books

Dear Readers,

Welcome to Cyber Monday at Literary Revelations. This season please do not forget to shop for book. Literary Revelations has three #1 Amazon Bestsellers. All poets who contributed to those volumes are fantastic.

‘Books are a uniquely portable magic.’
Stephen King

Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology (Literary Revelations, January 2023)

A #1 Amazon bestseller [New Hot Releases in Poetry Anthologies]

Description:

From authors featured on NPR, BBC, and the New York Times, and from emerging poets, comes a monumental anthology in which every poem sends shivers down your spine. Childhood’s joy and trauma expressed – with stunning talent and sincerity – by over 150 poets in more than 280 poems. Childhood spaces magnified by the human memory, populated by good and bad, by trips to hell and heaven, in an almost Hieronymus Bosch type of atmosphere. Over 150 voices call you to read this book. Read it. You will learn that childhood never goes away. You will be reminded of the beauty of the seraphim and the need to protect children from any form of abuse. 150 voices knock on your door. Open the door. A chorus of childhoods will tell you that our children need love.

Literary Revelations is proud to bring you this anthology and deeply grateful to all contributors for pouring out their hearts into the pages of this book.

Love, Stars, and Paradigms by Swarn Gill (Literary Revelations, April 1, 2023)

#1 Amazon bestseller in the US, the UK and Canada [Category: Love Poems]

Description:

Swarn Gill’s poetry collection, Love, Stars, and Paradigms is a must-read for anyone looking for original and stunning poems about love, social, and political issues. Through his work, Gill explores the connection between the natural realm and the human condition with an eye for detail that is both captivating and thought-provoking. Through powerful imagery and vivid language, he paints his own unique perspective on the world around us. Whether it’s about heartache or joy, Gill’s words will touch your soul. Love, Stars, and Paradigms is an unforgettable journey through the beauty of love and the complexities of relationships.

Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh (August, 2023)

A #1 Amazon bestseller on Hot New Releases – Haiku and Japanese Poetry; on August 13, 2023, features as the #1 bestselling haiku book in the UK.

Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh is a spectacular collection. From every page the beauty of haiku and senryu poetry jumps, inscribing itself in the soul of the reader with color, sonority, melancholy, grief, and love. Water, clouds, memories, do not only mark chapters. They become the real soul of the book. The transitory nature of haiku and senryu – with their delicate and ethereal qualities – is magically transformed by the authors into permanence. That is no easy thing to do. C.X. Turner and James Welsh create a world of splendor and depth that will forever mark those who read the book.

The book showcases seven wonderful sketches done by C.X. Turner. You will find beauty and great substance in them.

Building Sandcastles has received plenty of advanced praise:

Bryan Rickert, Editor: Failed Haiku Journal of Senryu, President: The Haiku Society of America writes: “With both broad brushstrokes and intimate details, these two poets paint the beautiful experience of their haiku worlds.”

Joe Woodhouse, Editor: Wales Haiku Journal states that: “In one breath tender and poignant, in the next stark and arresting, this collection of short poems is a journey of discovery through an evocative series of moments in nature. It is an exploration of that yearning to glean meaning from the chaotic lives we all lead.”

Roberta Beach Jacobson Editor, Cold Moon Journal and Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry) tells us: “Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems, the stunning new collection by C.X. Turner and James Welsh, is a must-have for your shelves. These thought-provoking haiku and senryu left me breathless.”

Thank you for the visit!

This post will appear in Literary Revelations too.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology (ed.), Literary Revelations, 2023
Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (ed.), Experiments in Fiction, 2022.
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow :I Love Poems and Poetic Prose, Vita Brevis Press, 2021.
Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings, Vita Brevis Press, 2020

On Winning and Hate

The afternoon smelled of brick; the wall I used to scratch with the knees and the nails on my way to the sea.

My blood stained my socks and fed the roots of the orange tree mama planted one spring before my seventh birthday. Soon after, the tree grew blood oranges.

I used to dream I would reach the port before crickets would serenade the white cement between the bricks, and the evening wind would sew the wounds from the face of the wall.

I needed a God to lead me to the sea. In Mama’s stories, there were too many Gods leading souls to heaven. I did not want to go to heaven. I wanted to go to the sea.

I used to fail. I did not understand what failure is. The next afternoon, little ducks embroidered on the rim of my blue dress, I would start climbing the wall again.

One day I thought I would get to the port and run straight into the sea.

Little did I know that day came when I first looked into your eyes. The sea inside your eyes like laundry left to dry on a wire. Long red poles floundered left and right like the wings of a moribund bird. The body of a boat eroded by salt, and by the kisses of the women of your past agonized in green and blue.

The sea inside your eyes: on the right your love for me, and on the left, your hate for the world.

Did I say your love for me? You see, over time, I had to reconsider that formulation. Your feelings resembled more a never-ending animal magnetism than love.

Let me make one thing clear. No one person is sufficient to drive all demons from another one. You can think Goethe’s elective affinities if you wish. I cannot save you from you. You need to help me. I can carry this conversation into the night and win.

Ah, winning! The day I understood I can win, I stepped into hell.

That day was the day I lost my innocence and with that the paradise. Since then, my blood has never stained my socks anymore. The orange tree has never grown red-fleshed oranges, and Mama stopped telling stories.

featured image: Gabriela Marie Milton, Greece.

Included in my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I am thrilled to let you know that Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh, published by Literary Revelations, is now a #1 Amazon Bestseller [Haiku and Japanese Poetry]. We made to #1 several hours after the launch.

I am proud to be the publisher of this gorgeous book.

Thank you to those who support us.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I Wanted to Love You – poem by Gabriela Marie Milton

each word I write cries on the tunes of spring,
a spring that ends in graveyards and in dreams
the night I abandoned you on that bench and left
snows in my mind the syllable of hell
I bought one ticket from a shaman dressed in red
and flew towards the island of nowhere
and now between the mighty heaven and the hell
I love you and I hate you are the same
and I return to find the pardon of the sands
to kiss your dust left on your mother’s hand
I dress in colored ashes and I speak
the language of the prophets with no tongues
on a new bench, I sit alone at funerals
and wait until the sea closes its eyes
to resurrect the ghost of love that you inscribed
on the red bridge between your spring and mine
I wanted to return
I wanted to love you

Explore

Visit Literary Revelations for more poetry and art

Explore

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I am thrilled to let everyone know that Swarn Gill’s new book Love, Stars, and Paradigms released a few hours ago just became #1 Amazon bestseller in the UK, the US, and Canada.

Congratulations to Swarn! My publishing house – Literary Revelations – and I are thrilled. Thank you to those who support and believe in us.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The book is available in all Amazon markets.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Neurosis

I suspect I suffer from an acute crisis of half-bloomed neurosis. My past emotions do not fully interfere with my current experiences. The converse is true too. No sophistry added. How boring.

I work my magic. I jump in the water dressed in black lingerie made from Calais laces and Lyon silks. I can feel the waves pounding my body while my mind drowns in the ambiguity of the French Nouveau Roman standing mid-way between modernism and post-modernism like a drunken sunset that cannot distinguish between yellow and orange.

The foliage of the sea turns burgundy. Your fingers contour my face.

Oh, you.

I forget that my favorite poet is Arthur Rimbaud with his “A thousand Dreams within me softly burn” and “I shed more tears than God could ever have required.” All I remember is that once I wrote: “I’ve never existed outside of your obsession with me and my interpretations of you.”

There is something about these interpretations that make you burst in cascades of laughter and art your love for me with lust.

One morning, left by my pillow, I found your reply written on a large index card: “I had to bury your existence inside my obsessions. If not, your love could not have been fully stabilized. You above anyone else know that an absolute correspondence in love does not exist. Love is a mathematical singularity.”

From my #1 Amazon bestselling book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow (Vita Brevis Press, 2021)

Reminder

Please remember to visit Literary Revelations site for new posts and updates on the upcoming poetry book Love, Stars, and Paradigms by Swarn Gill.

Thank you.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I am your soul – poem [fragment]

look for me my love

my body shines like lightning

striking down from Mount Olympus

I’m the tremble of each tear

which poor hungry children shed

I’m the prayer of the lonely

the garden where the virgins blush

the mystic bite of occult ecstasies

I’m hidden in the Sistine Chapel

in haunted graveyards at midnight

I’m bursting from the keys of the piano

which plays alone Beethoven’s 5^th

…

Included in my book, Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings (Vita Brevis Press, 2020)

Updates on Literary Revelations

I am thrilled to let you know that Literary Revelations will publish Swarn Gill’s wonderful poetry collection: Love, Stars, and Paradigms. Please read the book’s foreword here: https://literaryrevelations.com/2023/02/28/coming-in-april-love-stars-and-paradigms-a-poetry-collection-by-swarn-gill-foreword/. I hope you enjoy it.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to be featured in New York Glamour Magazine the third time. I was asked to first speak about myself and then about the anthology Hidden in Childhood [Literary Revelations, 2023]. I am grateful to everyone who spread the word about this stunning anthology. I am grateful to everyone who bought it. I am proud to have brought together the voices of 150 poets to speak to you in more than 270 poems about the trauma and the joy of childhood. Hidden in Childhood is a stunning and important book. It became a #1 Amazon bestseller for 5 days after its release. Yesterday it recaptured its #1 place for the entire day.

You can get the anthology and read the poetry of those stunning writers HERE.

Apologies if I did not return some of your love. I will visit with you as soon as can. None of you knows that I have an extremely rare autoimmune condition. It is so rare that it’s basically understudied. There is no treatment for it. For years it left me alone. Now, I am going through a flare up. All medical tests were done, and there is no damage to any of my internal tissues. I am ok but I will need time to recover. Please be patient with me and I will visit your sites soon.

Now let’s go back to happier things. I am thrilled I was asked by New York Glamour Magazine to talk about me. However I am beyond delighted I could talk about Hidden in Childhood and your marvelous poetry.

Here are some snippets from the interview:

“Yes, I am an American, but I am also a child of Europe. I have been fascinated, mesmerized, frightened, brought to tears, left speechless by the greatest writers of Europe. I still am. Later, I discovered America’s greatest: Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, Faulkner, Hemingway, Miller, Poe. Yet, in my darkest moments – like those rare moments in which I cannot write – only the writings of Lawrence Durrell bring my muse back.”

“Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology is our first publication. It comprises over 150 authors and more than 270 poems. It is available on Amazon and for almost 5 days was the #1 Amazon Hot New Release in Poetry Anthologies. As the editor, curator, and publisher of this book, I am honored and humbled that so many poets entrusted me with their work. The beauty and the power of the poems included in Hidden in Childhood brought me to tears. The poems of the contributors are stunners. As I wrote in the foreword of the book, if you open the pages of this poetry collection, you will be mesmerized by the talent of the contributors, and by the range of stylistic approaches they use to recreate the world of childhood“

Please read the entire interview here:

Gabriela Marie Milton – “Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology.”

Thank you!

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

As of this writing Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology is still running #1 on Amazon New Releases [poetry anthologies]. This is almost the 5th day. I cannot tell you how humbled and delighted I am. The poetry in this volume is fantastic. 150 poets wrote about their childhood. Joy and pain. Tears and smiles.

Today coming from childhood the voice of Vance Walker.

PAST AS PROLOGUE – VANCE WALKER

Under the old oak tree
where they hung our swing
we three would play
till the bell would ring

and we burned our hands
on the fisherman’s rope
and skinned our knees
on the fireman’s pole

In our big tree house
with lights but no water
we three played
two sons and a daughter

Using cherries for blood
our ammunition was mud
squirt guns for rain
It was all just pantomimed pain

And I could hold my breath
much longer than you
under the old oak tree
when it was just us two

Except on that day
on that afternoon
when that rope around your neck
turned your face bright blue

I didn’t know what to do
under that old oak tree
Hang on hold on
I’ll get you free

We had our GI Joes
up to their necks in mud
and flying through the air
and landing with a thud

And I could hold my breath
much longer than you
except on that day
on that afternoon

when you banged to the floor
when I banged down the door
blood, not mud
and your face bright blue

I didn’t know what to do
tears coming down like rain
you in your cherry juice
you and your phone cord noose

Remember when
we had to pantomime pain?

Well it was we three
then it was us two
now it’s just me
me alone

using tears for rain
and I don’t have to pantomime pain.

Vance Walker has been writing poetry since he was a little boy. Recent poetry published: When Smooth-Faced Wooers Woo, in the Wingless Dreamer’s Breath of Love, Poems for Global Poemic, Vita Brevis Press, and The Gay & Lesbian Review. His play, You’ve Got To Keep Mother Alive, was recently performed at Scribe Stages.

Updates:

My deepest apologies for not being able to return your likes. At this point Word Press is working to fix several problems that occurred with this site. I believe I can reply to your comments on my site, but I cannot leave comments or like other sites. I hope this problem gets fixed soon.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I am thrilled to let you know that Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology published by Literary Revelations is now a #1 Amazon bestseller. This book was made possible by the gorgeous poems you, poets from around the world, sent us. Thank you for trusting Literary Revelations with your poetry. Congratulations! You are now #1 Amazon bestselling poets. And we are filled with joy.

We planned the official release of the book on January 31. The book was on Amazon on the 26. However, not all Amazon markets were populated [at the hour I write they are still not fully populated] and the book’s categories we not showing. Even now only one category shows. In addition we had other few things to take care of.

However, people found out about the book on the 27th of January. In a matter of hours Hidden in Childhood became a #1 Amazon bestseller.

I am filled with joy and gratitude. Thank you for buying the book. Thank you for supporting Literary Revelations Publishing House.

On our pre-launch Hidden in Childhood show: Our gracious host Victoria Onofrei of Radio Bloomsbury will broadcast the show on Sunday January 29, at 6pm London Time. If you want to listen you can do it here https://www.bil.ac.uk/bloomsburyradio/

You can buy the book here:

Thank you. Have a great weekend.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books: