Joy

By Mike Bond

First published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in City Lights Books, Mike Bond is an award-winning poet, best-selling novelist, ecologist and former war and human rights correspondent. His previous poetry collection, The Drum That Beats Within Us received high praise and has been a best-seller repeatedly since its publication in 2018. This new collection draws from his extensive poetry on love, wilderness, wisdom and fate, on our everyday lives and the infinite and eternal universes in which we live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Bond
• Release date: Nov 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781949751314

Mike Bond

Called "the master of the existential thriller" (BBC), "one of America's best thriller writers" (Culture Buzz) and "one of the 21st century's most exciting authors" (Washington Times), Mike Bond is the author of eight best-selling novels, a war and human rights journalist, ecologist, and award-winning poet. Based on his own experiences in many dangerous and war-torn regions of the world, his novels portray the innate hunger of the human heart for good, the intense joys of love, the terror and fury of battle, the sinister conspiracies of dictators, corporations and politicians, and the beauty of the vanishing natural world.

Book preview

Joy

THE DRUM THAT BEATS WITHIN US

Poetry

"Passionately felt emotional connections, particularly to Western landscapes and Native American culture... compellingly linking the great cycles of stars with little, common lives... to create a powerful sense of loss... a muscular poignancy." − Kirkus

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The poetry is sometimes raw, painful, exquisite but there is always the sense that it was written from the heart. − LibraryThing

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A collection of poetry that explores the elements of nature, what nature can provide, what nature can take away, and how humans are connected to it all. − Book Review Bin

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"An exploration of self and nature... that asks us to look at our environment through the eyes of animals... and the poetry that has been with us since the dawn of time... comforting, challenging, and thought provoking." − Bound2Books

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His poetry courses, rhythmic and true through his works. His words serve as an important alarm for readers to wake from their contented slumber of self-absorbed thought and notice the changes around them. Eye-opening and a joy to read, the master of the existential thriller can add another winning title to his accolades. − BookTrib

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The language is beautiful, heartbreaking, romantic, sad, savvy, and nostalgic all at once. From longer poems to very short, thought-provoking poems, the lines of each take the reader to a world the poet has experienced or given much thought to. Truly beautiful. − Goodreads

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This is such a beautiful book of poetry ... the imagery is vibrant, devastating, and haunting... A thoroughly modern 21st century collection that revisits and revises classic themes. Highly recommended. − NetGalley

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The poems are beautiful and range from the long lyrical expressions of love and nature to the brief expressions of a moments insight into a sudden feeling, expressed with a few words that capture the moment and the feeling perfectly. − Metapsychology Reviews

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"The Drum That Beats Within Us presents us with a world gone awry, a world in which the warrior poet has fought, and a world in which only love survives." – Vine Reviews

ALSO BY MIKE BOND

POETRY

The Drum That Beats Within Us

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NOVELS

America

Freedom

Revolution

The Last Savanna

Assassins

Saving Paradise

Killing Maine

Goodbye Paris

Snow

House of Jaguar

Holy War

Tibetan Cross

In memoriam

Isobelle Ray Bond

Was there ever a poem you didn’t know?

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.

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– Teilhard de Chardin

Title Page

Copyright © 2022 by Mike Bond

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Cover design by Alan Dingman

Author photo by © PF Bentley / PFPIX.com

MikeBondBooks.com

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Published in the United States by Big City Press, New York.

ISBN PAPERBACK: 978-1-949751-30-7

ISBN EBOOK: 978-1-949751-31-4

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PUBLISHER’S CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION