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

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

THE RABBI PUPPET OF PRAGUE

My friend Richard Katrovas created the Prague Summer Program in the wake of the Velvet Revolution and I was fortunate to teach in it many times in the summer. I got to learn the culture of Prague, especially the Jewish culture of the Jewish Quarter with its twin icons, the Golem and Franz Kafka.  Eventually … Read more

DREAM LOGIC RE-DREAMED

My friend Alexis Krasilovsky who is a noted film-maker and author  also does graphic art. She  read into DREAM LOGIC and produced two illustrations that I wanted to share. I think one of the best ways to read a poem is to write a poem for it, or as she did, to make an art … Read more