Image Description: Front cover of Poetry of Presence II featuring a white swan with wings spread on still water beneath the title.

About Poetry of Presence II: This follow-up volume to the immensely popular Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems will lead you into the heart of this question. Poetry of Presence II contains nearly 140 poems, most by contemporary or recent poets. Many of the poems delve into relational or social mindfulness, helping you explore "the tough stuff" of living among others with presence. They invite you to face relational challenges without turning away from them. To deepen your awareness of them. To seek equanimity in the midst of them. To address them with compassion, hope, courage, and humility. Let these poems prepare you to act with clarity amidst confusion, with kindness amidst cruelty. Let them also provide a refuge, where you can recharge when you're worn down, where you can just be.

Included Poets: Ellen Bass, Wendell Berry, Lucille Clifton, Albert Garcia, Ross Gay, Amanda Gorman, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Fady Joudah, Ted Kooser, Dorianne Laux, Li-Young Lee, Ada Limon, W.S. Merwin, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Rainer Maria Rilke, William Stafford, Joyce Sutphen, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, David Whyte, and many others. 

About the Authors: Phyllis Cole Dai has been writing since childhood, exploring the forces that divide people in hopes of fostering deeper understanding. She is the author or editor of more than a dozen books in poetry, memoir, and fiction, most recently The Singing Stick (2024), and has also released four music albums. Raised in rural Ohio, she holds degrees from Goshen College, Methodist Theological School, and The Ohio State University. After 25 years in South Dakota, she now lives in Catonsville, Maryland, with her scientist husband; her son Nathan is her greatest joy.