Ellen Steinbaum

Welcome! My new book, Leavings, is out in the world and looking great, thanks to beautiful cover art from a painting by David Lloyd Brown and wonderful book design by Sarah Bennett.

It’s about how we live our lives not only in this moment, but also in the context of public and private moments past and future–what is left to us and for us and by us. My Poem of the Moment is from the new collection.

I have a new “Quote of the Moment.” Although we are fortunate in 2024 to read its language as dated, its observation of our interconnectedness is not and is, in fact, what I think is at the heart of Leavings.

Readings and Writings

On November 12 I did a Zoom reading for the First and Last Word Poetry Series and read with Mary Bonina and Mark Pawlak. Here’s the recording.

On December 4 I had the pleasure of reading at the historic Grolier Poetry Bookshop with Mary Bonina, Charles Coe, and Helena Minton. It was recorded and the link will be up as soon as it’s available.

With thanks to Doug Holder, here is an email interview I did with him.

This is a link to a reading I did for the First and Last Word poetry series with Neil Silberblatt and Elizabeth S. Wolf.

Back when we weren’t going anywhere I did a reading for the Stockbridge (Massachusetts) Public Library . Here’s the link.

 

Poem of the moment

Wash, Dry, Put Away, Sweep

Thinking about it now it
makes no sense that Dry didn’t also
Put Away, standing, as she did,
dish already in hand,

but that would have
taken one sister less,
and there were four.
Sweep was the catch-all:

sweep but also wrap leftovers,
clear the table of salt and
pepper shakers and occasional
trivet, generally tidy up,

make sure nothing went undone.
It was always the four,
always “the girls”
no matter their ages

and though I was their
cherished pet, I felt my
lone sisterless state.

Wash was the job I coveted,
rote task, hot soapy water,
gossip, laughing, maybe secrets
in the air around me.

But I was hurried to the living room
with my grandmother, she to rest
from cooking, I to wait till I was older,
though older would still be sisterless.

On a plague-abbreviated
holiday, family pared
to bare bones: no cousins,
aunts, or random friends,

my three daughters and grand-
daughter take up the task:
this generation’s necessary four:
Wash, Dry, Put Away, Sweep.

Books

Leavings
$18.00
Read more about Leavings here.

This Next Tenderness
$18.00
Read more about This Next Tenderness here.

Brightness Falls
$18.00
Read more about Brightness Falls here.

Container Gardening
$18.00
Read more about Container Gardening here.

Afterwords
$10.00
Read more about Afterwords here.

 

Quote of the moment

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving. Albert Einstein

 

 

My photo on the home page is by James Dalsimer. The book trailer video is by A. Dalsimer. The cover of Afterwords was designed by Kate Misail and the cover painting is by Eric Sealine. The cover art on the other books is by Faith Hochberg (Container Gardening), Lora Brody (Brightness Falls), Laura Fischman (This Next Tenderness), and David Lloyd Brown (Leavings).