poetry

MIAMI BOOK FAIR Why Poetry Still Matters

Seeing Into the Life of Things: How Images Heal front cover

Rodger Kamenetz will be featured in two panels during the Miami Book Fair. Sunday, November 23 @ 11 – 11:50 a.m. ET Building 8, Third Floor, Room 8303 WHY POETRY STILL MATTERS During the historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama, as told in his international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus, Rodger Kamenetz … Read more

Counting Blessings. Excerpt from Seeing Into the Life of Things

A main difference between dreams and poetry is that seeing dream images is involuntary and effortless, while seeing images in words—reading with imagination—requires intention and participation. You can’t speed read poetry. The same is true of memory. I must concentrate to bring images to life. The life that comes to mind this morning is a … Read more

SEEING INTO THE LIFE OF THINGS. BOOK LAUNCH

Cover of Seeing Into the Life of Things

Rodger Kamenetz’s new book, Seeing Into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter, addresses the problem of reactivity. These afflictive states of mind are at the root of our personal suffering: envy, resentment, rage, anxiety—difficult and unpleasant mind states that drive us crazy until we feel our own lives are not our own. … Read more

Rodger Kamenetz and Mark Statman POETRY READING

My friend Mark Statman, long time resident and citizen of Oaxaca Mexico will read poetry with me at the Oaxaca Lending Library. Wednesday August 13 4:30=5:30. Event is free but you need to register here: https://www.oaxlibrary.org/event-details/book-presentation-1?fbclid=IwY2xjawMHIWlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFkZHJHQmdsc1ZSa2xvMTNNAR7ORClV4fOzwhkgzZTB2WaWeZjd5OKeRG-RXPUO1QGLlQan5NiUNdrriqSxog_aem_DwyKbfi4GB2tF5jqUkvsGQ    

ASTERISM

Asterism Losing infinity I saved up for immediacy. Every hour I put a penny in to see the cornflower open its eye or to hear the thunder mutter proto- names. I borrowed the pennies from the eyelids of dead sailors and paid back in summer stars I could actually name Deneb Altair Vega. Great triangles … Read more

3 Gilguls of The Missing Jew: Gilgul 2

GILGUL 2 1992 In 1992 Time Being Books re-issued an expanded edition, The Missing Jew: New and Selected Poems. I took lines from the old poems and using midrash made new poems from the old. The book now was 101 pages long. About this edition, the great novelist Louise Erdrich was kind enough to write: … Read more

3 Gilguls of The MISSING JEW: Gilgul 3

front cover

GILGUL 3: 2022 In the years since I continued to write on Jewish themes, including The Lowercase Jew which Northwestern put out in 2003. I always felt I wanted to expand THE MISSING JEW project and now in its current incarnation comes The Missing Jew: Poems 1976-2022 which encompasses 46 years of work. At 230 … Read more

3 Gilguls of The Missing Jew: GILGUL 1

GILGUL 1 1976 In 1976 after my grandfather David Kamenetz z”l died and my rabbi from childhood, Morris Lieberman died, my friend Dr. Marc Lieberman gave me a copy of all the volumes of the Rodkinson Talmud from his uncle’s library. I had never been exposed to the Talmud, and though the Rodkinson is an … Read more