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Two Places
Lenore Weiss’ psychic linguistic engagement borders on the surreal, on the transcendent, the mystical, the magical, and on the mundane and familiar. “I’m lost in a place between two places,” “in and out of worlds,” the ancient and recent pasts, in the fragments of stories of others, and of the lover we’ll never get enough of. The sequence of Jewish poems is poignant; the persona poem of Borte, Chinggis Khaan’s first wife, stunning. Two places, all the places, times and “where the slaughter goes on and on/and on.” Weiss’ poems are dreams that “are our innocence our incense / we burn every night.”
Sharon Doubiago, My Father’s Love, Love on the Streets, South America Mi Hija, Hard Country, etc.
Lenore Weiss has captured the essence of the persona poem in Börte, the wife of Genghis Khan, but she takes it one step further by creating a series of narrative poems set in modern-day Istanbul, Louisiana, and New York, which are shown through the eyes of a Jewish-American poet. The genius is in the balance between the lyric and the settings, between the strong voice and the sense of time and love where we feel days [that] stick in [the] throat. Weiss delves into “the fissure of [the] heart” and the reader can’t help but dive in.
Matthew E. Silverman, The Breath Before Birds Fly, editor of Bloomsbury's Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry and Poetry Editor at Blue Lyra Review
The delightful poems from Two Places bear out the best of what proceeds from travel, the lucky sightings of the unforgettable, our enlarged compassion for lives we could never have imagined. It is faith, in its many manifestations, the smoke hole of a Tartar tent opening onto stars, a whirling Dervish, or a Yahrzeit candle lit for her father. Whether crossing the Bay Bridge to Oakland or walking the bayous of Louisiana, Weiss carries in her fine, attentive eye the attitude of praise.
Jack Heflin, The Map of Leaving, Local Hope, and Editor of turnrow books
Sharon Doubiago, My Father’s Love, Love on the Streets, South America Mi Hija, Hard Country, etc.
Lenore Weiss has captured the essence of the persona poem in Börte, the wife of Genghis Khan, but she takes it one step further by creating a series of narrative poems set in modern-day Istanbul, Louisiana, and New York, which are shown through the eyes of a Jewish-American poet. The genius is in the balance between the lyric and the settings, between the strong voice and the sense of time and love where we feel days [that] stick in [the] throat. Weiss delves into “the fissure of [the] heart” and the reader can’t help but dive in.
Matthew E. Silverman, The Breath Before Birds Fly, editor of Bloomsbury's Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry and Poetry Editor at Blue Lyra Review
The delightful poems from Two Places bear out the best of what proceeds from travel, the lucky sightings of the unforgettable, our enlarged compassion for lives we could never have imagined. It is faith, in its many manifestations, the smoke hole of a Tartar tent opening onto stars, a whirling Dervish, or a Yahrzeit candle lit for her father. Whether crossing the Bay Bridge to Oakland or walking the bayous of Louisiana, Weiss carries in her fine, attentive eye the attitude of praise.
Jack Heflin, The Map of Leaving, Local Hope, and Editor of turnrow books
94 pages, Paperback
Published May 24, 2014
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