I think of Container Gardening as a collection of poems about about what is perishable, what endures, and what makes us who we are. After my first book, Afterwords, which dealt very specifically with loss, these poems speak of how we pick up the pieces and go on to create the private and public worlds we inhabit. Here’s one:
standing at the shore
afterwards we will
look at it and say
this was when we still or
this was before
but then we will not be
at that same soft moment
grouped in pastel shirts
the children giddy with being
on the beach at nearly bedtime
digging their toes nto the sand
wild to escape to the waves
get their clothes wet
looking back we may see
the messy instant of everyone
trying to be perfect or
we may see it
framed by then
glowing
that minute
when we did not know where
we would be looking back from
What people are saying…
“Beneath the impeccably controlled surfaces of these poems lies the hidden knowledge of dangers past and to come. Container Gardening gives us illuminating glimpses of a life bravely lived. It is a deeply felt and moving book.”
–Linda Pastan
“Ellen Steinbaum is a poet of muted grief and quiet acceptance. And hope. In Container Gardening the losses we suffer—private, public, political, natural—are universal. But she knows, with wry certainty, that “what is broken can / (never) / be repaired / the pieces can / (not) / be put back.” Definitely one or the other. Steinbaum’s sigh of resignation and breath of hope are both genuine. The contained garden of her poems becomes a conscious strategy to deal with all those—all our—losses. I was moved by Ellen Steinbaum’s first book and eager for a second. I haven’t been disappointed.”
— Lloyd Schwartz
“This book would not make a loud sound even if you dropped it on the kitchen floor. No matter the emotions, their range is even and measured. These are not the poems of wildwoods or abandoned gardens, but the sort grown on urban balconies and in small kitchens.
“A great range of subjects come to the poet’s hand—war, culture, history, family, children, death, the agony of things left by loved ones. Ellen Steinbaum’s previous book, Afterwords, was written as a consequence of her husband’s death. Because second books often do not have the emotional need of the first book, they can be much more difficult. To be successful, they must show the sure hand of a true poet. That we have here.
“Anyone who has produced two good books should continue. We can’t wait for more.”
— George Magoon
“Ellen Steinbaum brings to her work an exacting craftsmanship that reveals her admirable control over her material and subjects. She is a fine poet and her poems are lasting and should be read by all those interested in contemporary poetry and hungry for meaningful writing.”
— Ottone Riccio
“Ellen Steinbaum’s poetry collection Container Gardening infuses meaning into all the things we carry in this life. It is a long and lyrical grocery list that evokes the way time creeps up on a person with a flick of an eye.
“She writes a popular column about writers and the writing life in The Boston Globe. In this book she is the subject, and her life yields rich rewards.”
— Doug Holder/Ibbetson Update
