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Overview
Collected poems of pivotal Jewish lesbian activistWinner of the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry (2023)Finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, Berru Award for Poetry, in memory of Ruth and Bernie Weinflash (2022)A trailblazing lesbian poet, child Holocaust survivor, and political activist whose work is deeply informed by socialist values, Irena Klepfisz is a vital and individual American voice. This book is the first complete collection of her work. For fifty years, Klepfisz has written powerful, searching poems about relatives murdered during the war, recent immigrants, a lost Yiddish writer, a Palestinian boy in Gaza, and various people in her life. In her introduction to Klepfisz's A Few Words in the Mother Tongue, Adrienne Rich wrote: "[Klepfisz's] sense of phrase, of line, of the shift of tone, is almost flawless." Her Birth and Later Years was a Finalist for the Jewish Book Award and winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819501080 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wesleyan University Press |
| Publication date: | 01/09/2024 |
| Series: | Wesleyan Poetry Series |
| Pages: | 296 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
IRENA KLEPFISZ (Brooklyn, NY) taught Jewish Women's Studies at Barnard College for 22 years. She is the author of four books of poetry including Periods of Stress, Keeper of Accounts, Different Enclosures, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue, and a collection of essays Dreams of an Insomniac. She was co-editor of The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology. An advocate of the Yiddish language and active in its renaissance in the United States, she has published poetry and essays have appeared in Jewish Currents, Tablet Magazine, In Geveb, Sinister Wisdom, The Manhattan Review, Conditions, The Georgia Review and Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures. Her Birth and Later Years was a Finalist for the Jewish Book Award and winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry.
Table of Contents
CONTENTSEARLY WORK (1971)Searching for My Father's BodyThe Widow and DaughterFROM PERIODS OF STRESS (1975)Iduring the warpowsherr captaindeath campabout my fatherperspectives on the second world warIIconditionsperiods of stressplease don't touch medinosaurs and larger issueswhen the heart failsit was goodflesh is coldthey're always curiousthey did not build wings for themthe fishIIIin betweenthe houseblendingedgesIVaesthetic distanceself-dialoguesTWO SISTERS (1978)Helen and Eva Hesse: An IntroductionTwo Sisters: A MonologueKEEPER OF ACCOUNTS (1982)I From the Monkey House and Other CagesMonkey 1Monkey 2II Different EnclosuresContextsWork SonnetsWork SonnetsNotesA Monologue about a DialogueA Poem for Judy beginning a new jobIII Urban FlowersMnemonic Devices: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, 1981Royal PearlLithopsAestheticsWinter LightOleanderCactusAbutilon in BloomIV Inhospitable SoilGlimpses of the OutsideA PlaceA VisitA Place in TimeMourningBashertThese words are dedicated to those who diedThese words are dedicated to those who survivedPoland, 1944: My mother is walking down a roadChicago, 1964: I am walking home alone at midnightBrooklyn, 1971: I am almost equidistant from two continentsCherry Plain, 1981: I have become a keeper of accountsSolitary ActsA FEW WORDS IN THE MOTHER TONGUE (1983-1990)I cannot swimDi rayze aheym/The journey home1. Der fentster/The window2. Vider a mol/Once again3. Zi flit/She flies4 A beys-oylem/A cemetery5. Kashes/Questions6. Zi shemt zihk/She is ashamed7. In der fremd/Among strangers8. Di tsung/The tongue9. Di rayze aheym/The journey homeEtlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn/ A few words in the mother tongueFradel SchtokDer mames shabosim/My Mother's Sabbath Days'67 RememberedWarsaw, 1983: UmschlagplatzEast Jerusalem, 1987: Bet Shalom (House of Peace)HER BIRTH AND LATER YEARS (1990-2021)FootnotesMarch 1939: Warsaw, PolandWarsaw 1941: The story of her birthPesakh: Reynolda Gardens, Winston Salem1. Winter2. Spring3. The Seder TableMitsrayim: Goat DreamDer soyne/The Enemy: An Interview in GazaIn memory of Razan al-NajjarInstructions of the dying elderDearest Friend: Regarding Esther FrumkinMillet's Flight of CrowsFive ways to view a drawingMourning CycleParsing the questionThis HouseLiberation of the rosesTreeswound: a memoryWind chimeGrief changes and doesn'tEntering the streambetween shadow and night: a treatise on lonelinessAnd Death Is Always with UsFor Jean Swallow: whom I barely knewMy mother at 99: Looking for homemy mother's loveseatJuly 22: GeologyJamaica Wildlife Preserve: SeptemberThe old poet cycleThe old poet reconsiders actingThe old poet tries unsuccessfully to bring/chaos back into her orderThe old poet and OrionThe old poet's become tiredThe old poet remembers the immigrant girlGrief: Brunswick Public Library, MaineDer fremder in der fremdGlossary and ReferencesNotesIndex of titlesCreditsAcknowledgmentsWhat People are Saying About This
From the Publisher
"In terrible times poetry comforts, challenges, and sustains. Irena Klepfisz has been doing all these through the decades. With this book she gives us an enormous measure of grace. It is evidence of the work done to change the world—a vision of and commitment to justice in the largest sense. We are fortunate, all of us, to have it."—Dorothy Allison, author of Cavedweller
"This book is an absolute treasure for the readers of Irena Klepfisz, for readers of poetry, lesbian literature, and/or Jewish literature...The poet's voice simultaneously transcends time and is also deeply embedded within it."—Zohar Weiman-Kelman, author of Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women's Poetry
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