<DIV>An ALA Notable Poetry Book.<BR><BR><p><EM>Beauty is a Verb</EM> is a ground-breaking anthology of disability poetry, essays on disability, and writings on the poetics of both. Crip Poetry. Disability Poetry. Poems with Disabilities. This is where poetry and disability intersect, overlap, collide and make peace.</p><p>"[BEAUTY IS A VERB] is going to be one of the defining collections of the 21st century...the discourse between ability, identity & poetry will never be the same." -Ron Silliman, author of <EM>In The American Tree</EM></p><p>"This powerful anthology succeeds at intimately showing...disability through the lenses of poetry. What emerges from the book as a whole is a stunningly diverse array of conceptions of self and other."<<br />-<EM>Publishers Weekly</EM>, starred review</p><BR><p>From "Beauty and Variations" by Kenny Fries:</p><BR><p>How else can I quench this thirst? My lips<BR>travel down your spine, drink the smoothness</p><p>of your skin. I am searching for the core:<BR>What is beautiful? Who decides? Can the laws</p><p>of nature be defied? Your body tells me: come<BR>close. But beauty distances even as it draws</p><p>me near. What does my body want from yours?<BR>My twisted legs around your neck. You bend</p><p>me back. Even though you can't give the bones<BR>at birth I wasn't given, I let you deep inside.</p><p>You give me-what? Peeling back my skin, you<BR>expose my missing bones. And my heart, long</p><p>before you came, just as broken. I don't know who<BR>to blame. So each night, naked on the bed, my body</p><p>doesn't want repair, but longs for innocence. If<BR>innocent, despite the flaws I wear, I am beautiful.</p><p><strong>Sheila Black </strong>is a poet and children's book writer.</p><p>Disability activist <strong>Jennifer Bartlett </strong>is a poet and critic with roots in the Language school.</p><p><strong>Michael Northen </strong>is a poet and the editor of <em>Wordgathering: A Journal of Poetics and Disability.</em></p><BR></DIV>