Patrice Vecchione challenges readers to respond with their own truths to the poems she has gathered in this thought-provoking collection. “What do you find true?” she asks in her introduction. “Are you persuaded to believe? . . . Speak back to these works. Bring your questions with you when you turn the page . . . If you don’t speak your truth, who will?” Vecchione has selected 69 poems from writers across the centuries, including a fine gathering from poets writing today. As part of the biographical note for each writer, she includes a suggested reading list. A collection that emphasizes the very personal nature of truth reveals something essential about us all--the longing to find others whose truths speak to us. (Age 15 and older)

Here are poems teenagers will treasure, inscribe in diaries, and share with friends for years to come.

"The truth isn't always beauty but the hunger for it is."--Nadine Gordimer

Experienced anthologist and teacher Patrice Vecchione has created a unique thematic anthology which teenagers will pore over as they seek to be true, and have to face telling lies. Drawing on poets from Margaret Atwood to Langston Hughes, from Walt Whitman to Yevgeny Yevtusenko, she shows how truth is necessary, but how it can hurt, how lies may kill, and yet can soothe. The poems touch on a range of motivations and emotions including fear, guilt, forgiveness, trust, pride and anger. Some express surprising truths while others reveal painful lies. A sensitive gift, a great classroom resource, a companion in the hardest struggles of adolescence, Truth and Lies will be a perfect bridge from a teenager's diary to the world's greatest poetry.

Song of the Bald Eagle

we want what is real
we want what is real
don't deceive us!
-Crow

#1455

Opinion is a flitting thing,
But truth outlasts the Sun--
If then we cannot own them both--
Possess the oldest one--
-Emily Dickinson