A prize-winning collection of old and new poems that celebrate the Jewish experience, about which the poet Lyn Lifshin writes: "An exquisite book. The whole collection is strong, passionate, and poignant, but the mother and daughter poems, fierce and emotional, with their intense ambivalence, pain and joy, themes of separation and reconnecting, are among the very strongest about that difficult relationship." Lifshin continues, "These striking, original, beautifully sensuous poems do just that. Ordinary moments--a sunset, ...
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A prize-winning collection of old and new poems that celebrate the Jewish experience, about which the poet Lyn Lifshin writes: "An exquisite book. The whole collection is strong, passionate, and poignant, but the mother and daughter poems, fierce and emotional, with their intense ambivalence, pain and joy, themes of separation and reconnecting, are among the very strongest about that difficult relationship." Lifshin continues, "These striking, original, beautifully sensuous poems do just that. Ordinary moments--a sunset, a walk, a private religious ritual--are so alive in poems like 'Shabbat moment' and 'Rosh Hodesh.' In the same way that she celebrates ordinary moments, small things become charged with memories and feelings: paper snowflakes, buttons, one bird, a bottle-cap flower made from a ginger ale top and crystal beads. "She celebrates the body in rollicking, gusto-filled poems like 'Belly good' and 'The chuppah, ' where 'our bodies open their portals wide.' So much that is richly sensuous: 'hands that caressed you, . . . untied the knot of pleasure and loosened your flesh till it fluttered, ' and lush praise for 'life in our spines, our throats, our knees, our genitals, our brains, our tongues.' "I love the humor in poems like 'Eat fruit, ' the nostalgia and joy in 'The rabbi's granddaughter and the Christmas tree, ' the fresh, beautiful images of nature--'In winter . . .the sun hangs its wizened rosehip in the oaks.' "I admire Piercy's sense of the past alive in the present, in personal and social history. The poems are memorials, like the yahrtzeit candle in a glass. 'We lose and we go on losing, ' but the poems are never far from harsh joy, the joy that is 'the wine of life.' "Growing up haunted by Holocaust ghosts is an echo throughout the book, and some of the strongest poems are about the Holocaust, poems that become the voices of those who had no voice: 'What you carry in your blood is us, the books we did not write, music we could not make, a world gone from gristle to smoke, only as real now as words can make it.' "Marge Piercy's words make such a moving variety of experiences beautifully and forcefully real."
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Add this copy of The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems to cart. $20.00, like new condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Alfred A. Knopf.
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Among the many blessings to be found in American literature and poetry are the works of American-Jewish writers. Jewish-American poets have been celebrated in two recent anthologies: Telling and Remembering edited by Rubin and Jewish-American Poetry edited by Barron and Sellinger. Ever since Emma Lazarus, writing in the late 19th Century, the poetry written by American Jewish women have played a large part in this literature.
Marge Piercy may well be the best of the Jewish-American poets writing today. Her work is featured prominently in both the Rubin and the Barron and Sellinger anthologies with the latter collection including an essay as well. Both anthologies draw heavily from Ms. Piercy's "The Art of Blessing the Day" which prompted me to explore the entire volume.
The book as written, the dedication states, "for all who may find here poems that speak to their identity, their history, their desire for ritual -- ritual that may work for them". The collection is, indeed, specifically Jewish but its themes transcend any particular religious commitment and reach out to those who seek themselves in a spiritual path. The broad theme of the book is announced in the title poem (from which I have taken the title of this review) as "to taste/each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet/ and the salty, and be glad for what does not hurt." Again "Bless whatever you can/with eyes and hands and tongue. If you/can't bless it, get ready to make it new."
I was struck by the unity of the collection. Unlike most books of poetry where the reader may pick and choose among poems, this collection is best read as an integral whole from beginning to end. The unity of the collection is particularly impressive because many of the poems had been published earlier in a variety of places.
The book is divided into six sections with themes running cross-currently. The opening section, "Family" describes the poets difficult relationship with her mother and her loving relationship with her old-world grandmother. The section on her marriage was for me the most beautiful of the book with its celebration of erotic, physical and spiritual love. My favorite poem in the third section, "repair of the world" is the poem "to be of use" which celebrates the value of the world of work. (too infrequently praised). The next section is titled "Of history and Interpretation", explores women's issues and the Holocaust, as seen from the eyes of an American, among other themes.
The collection's final two sections "Prayer" and "The Year" are based respectively on the daily liturgy used in Judaism and on the yearly cycle of the Jewish holidays including the New Year, the Day of Atonement and Passover. Her versions of the traditional prayers I found insightful and eloquent.
Piercy writes beautifully, with elegance and understatement. Her poetry, with its reflections on the past and on nature and on her surroundings is informed by love rather than anger and by an effort to understand. It is a book that may be turned to repeatedly and thought about over time.
Poetry is an underappreciated art in America, even though many of our writers have shown high achievement. This book is one woman's contribution to the form.
