{"product_id":"first-light-and-other-poems-robert-counts-9780984953684","title":"First Light and Other Poems","description":"Born in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey, Roberts Counts grew up poor in the projects. Incarcerated at twenty, he began to read everything he could find from Shakespeare and Malcolm X to Einstein and Robert Frost. Gradually, he taught himself to write poetry. His poems, signed Ishmael Shamsid-din-as he was known for almost thirty years-deal with ghetto violence, the goodness and beauty of nature, and love as a source of redemption. With wit and lyric energy, Counts shows us what it takes to resist bitterness and nurture hope. \"These are poems of struggle: with language, in the first instance; with the mechanisms that spin the universe; with the gods and goddesses of love; but most of all with a recalcitrant self which refuses worn and easy paths.\" -Paul Lauter, Editor, The Heath Anthology of American Literature\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert Counts\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 098495368X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780984953684\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Full Court Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/12\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 106\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.27lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.25d","brand":"Robert Counts","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46962045190399,"sku":"9780984953684","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_1bfdbfec-e05a-4857-a7b9-35bd10248d21.jpg?v=1750649157","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/first-light-and-other-poems-robert-counts-9780984953684","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}