You never know. That’s pretty much the underlying theme of Brightness Falls. We think of what “falls” into our lives as unwelcome: shadows fall, darkness falls. But what falls can also be wonderful, as in my one life. These poems celebrate “this”–the unexpected turns, joys, regrets, and ordinary imperfections of our days, days we must not squander: “know this: it will/ not last.” Here’s one of the poems from the book:
A Hundred Forevers
He’s bought the wrong ones,
asked me to take them back
and so I slide the puny
roll of 42s–those
undistinguished flags–
across the counter, ask
can I exchange this and for
just two dollars more have
a hundred forevers.
Forever–not, we know, a word
to be believed: a note held on
past breath, the Dennis beach
beyond the oyster beds where
sand blurs into fog, or the
unlikeliness of this–our
stunned contentment that
has not, as yet, eroded into
boredom, irritation, those sodden,
all-too-human states that could
unspangle our small future. But the
enormity turns doubt aside: in this quantity,
no option but belief.
What people are saying…
“With fierce tenderness, with a delicate strength, Ellen Steinbaum’s Brightness Falls maps the brave, risky journey from bereavement to the “stunned contentment” of new love. The poet endures with a life-embracing passion for the living garden’s renewal, for the full-blown rose the beloved has left on her night-stand. In these beautifully realized poems, contentment is stunning. “No one is unscathed, yet here we are,/triumphant.”
— Gail Mazur
“This book is a ‘must read’ for everyone who has survived and recovered from loss. It is for everyone else as well.”
— Zvi Sesling, Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene
