Longing: Poems of a Life
What do we long for as we carry the traumas of our past and look into the future with guarded hope? In Longing: Poems of a Life, acclaimed poet Merle Feld tells her intensely personal story while naming profound human experience. Feld opens forbidden doors and long-shuttered windows, peering through the lattices of memory at moments of anguish, breaking, blessing, surviving. We accompany her through early family violence, isolation, the discovery of community and love; we witness her climb from the loss of possibility to the assertion of self-worth and purpose. Threading through the years are conversations with a mother long gone-"a slip of a girl" whose misplaced loyalty and endless capacity for loving are both cautionary tale and guidepost. Deeply Jewish yet universal, these gripping poems will stay with you.
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What is so compelling about Feld's writing is her ability to capture defining moments in her own life in ways that lead the reader to say, yes, I feel that way too. Her willingness to engage deeply with painful experiences of abuse and loss while also celebrating beauty and intimacy virtually ensures that readers will find many points of connection with this powerful book.
-Judith Plaskow, PhD, coauthor of Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology
I know I will read this book many times. It is that kind of book-one that you grow with. Read one page and you'll see: the truths Merle Feld reveals in Longing unlock everything, and leave everyone wide open.
-Rabbi Noa Kushner, Founding Rabbi, The Kitchen, San Francisco
In Longing, Merle Feld opens her tender and strong heart, speaks from the depths of her being, and expresses in touching and heartrending poetry the sorrows and joys, trials and satisfactions that mark human life. This is a book that both disturbs and caresses the soul.
-Rabbi David Ellenson, PhD, Chancellor Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Merle Feld's bracing poetry deepens and challenges the Jewish canon, while finding language for the moments we might have otherwise buried or missed. This book is bravely personal, deeply stirring, unblinking. You will revisit your own truths in these poems, finding power and courage in her beautiful words.
-Abigail Pogrebin, author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew
