Erika Dreifus

In addition to being a gifted poet, Richard Chess is a kind and generous teacher whom I was lucky to encounter back when I was an MFA student. Some months ago, the happy news reached me that a new collection of his work was forthcoming. Love Nailed to the Doorpost, which was released earlier this spring, is Chess’s fourth collection to be published by the University of Tampa Press, after Tekiah (1996), Chair in the Desert (2000), and Third Temple (2006).

A number of the pages in this new volume were familiar to me, because they appeared originally as posts in the Image/Patheos “Good Letters” blog series, and I’ve been following Rick’s contributions there for a long time. At first, I was a bit surprised to find these pieces in the book. I hadn’t necessarily perceived the pieces to be poems when I’d first read and admired them as blog posts. (more…)

I’ve mentioned the poetry of Yehoshua November in blog posts before, generally within link roundups. But I’ve just had the chance to read November’s new collection, Two Worlds Exist. And even if I don’t feel equipped to write a full-fledged review of this (or, frankly, any other poetry book), I want to draw your attention to this beautiful volume. (Especially at the start of the #Readukkah celebration!)

These are poems about prayer, and marriage, and parenting (and parenting a child who has a disability). And loss. Some are spare; all are powerful.

Reading this collection–which I did in a single sitting–I was struck anew with the realization of how “diverse” Jewish literature is, not merely in comparison with writing that reflects other traditions and cultures, but also within itself. November’s Judaism is not quite the same as my Judaism, and so along with the proverbial and familiar “mirrors” that I discovered as I read there I also encountered, perhaps more importantly, many quietly dramatic “windows.”

Here are just a few places online where you can find a few of the poems that appear in this book: (more…)