Pittsburgh poets’ publications proliferate this fall
"It’s the ambition of many poets and artists to show some kind of light or luminescence behind what other people overlook or what other people are too habituated to notice."
If you like your poetry written by Jewish poets, or if you like Jewish poetry written by American poets, you’re in luck this fall.
Two of the region’s most well-known poets, Yehoshua November and Philip Terman — both previous judges of the Chronicle’s poetry contests — have offerings available in time for autumn reading and Chanukah gift-giving.
November considers his newest book, “The Concealment of Endless Light,” as “kind of meeting point of Chasidic teachings and everyday life.”
“One Chasidic axiom, or tenet,” he said, “is that the loftiest divinity can come down to the lowest space and illuminate the lowest space and spiritualize that lowest space.”
Following that precept, November’s poems seek the spiritual dimension in seemingly ordinary moments.
In “The Concealment of Endless Light,” November synthesizes the two — whether it’s hearing Roy Orbison at a Holiday Inn pool, grading papers, driving, remembering familial moments with his son, father and grandfather, celebrating his 18th anniversary or writing about poetry readings; and the soul is always present, if not the main character.
“The midrash says that the purpose of creation was that God wanted to dwell in the lowest realm, meaning the physical world, which means to spiritualize the physical experience, to spiritualize the ordinary experience is the very purpose of creation,” he explained.
In “Notes on the Soul,” November writes: “Part of the soul/resides inside/the body,/which resides inside/the world — /the way the memory/of a kiss/circle in the mind/of a prisoner/walking laps/around the prison courtyard.”
Throughout the collection, November combines the sacred and the profane, calculable and infinite, in a work that would sit comfortably on any modern poetry library shelf.
“God is like a celebrity/making small talk/at a dinner party./Everyone hangs on His words, and if He were to stop speaking,/the evening would end,” he writes in “On the World’s Continuity Via Divine Speech,” updating a Chasidic teaching for the 21st century.
November seems to find meaningful rituals not only in Judaism’s practices and ceremonial objects but in the mechanics of everyday life as well.
That’s purposeful.
“If you look at most Jewish practices, they concern physical items, like putting on tefillin in the morning, taking the parchment from the skin of a cow and using that to pray to God,” he said. “Judaism is really invested in uplifting the physical, spiritualizing the physical. I would say, albeit in a secular way, it’s the ambition of many poets and artists to show some kind of light or luminescence behind what other people overlook or what other people are too habituated to notice.”
Terman’s newest poetry collection, “The Whole Mishpocha: New and Selected Poems, 1998-2023,” is tethered to the experiences of Judaism in everyday life rather than focusing on the divine.
It is Terman’s second poetry collection published this year, following “My Blossoming Everything,” a book he refers to as his “non-Jewish” poetry.
Uncharacteristically, “The Whole Mishpocha” opens with the essay “Writing Jewish.”
In it, Terman explains that he “writes Jewish,” drawing on the images, allusions, figures and forms provided by his Jewish legacy. And while acknowledging his debt to Judaism, he also explores Philip Roth’s statement that he was “a writer first and a Jew second.”
Terman, who embraces both his identity as a Jewish writer and a writer who is Jewish, ultimately describes himself as “a Jewish poet.”
The goal, he said, is to write poetry that both entertains and educates, even if readers aren’t familiar with all the Jewish scenes he paints.
“People are reading because they both want to have pleasure from reading but also learn,” he explained. “If I were reading a book by an Irish poet, I would want to learn and would look up information. I’m sure I limit the reader but don’t want that to stop me. They’ll pick it up, they’ll Google,” he said.
The poetry in “The Whole Mishpocha” wasn’t written specifically for the book — much of it has been published in various outlets — but it still maintains a consistent feel, perhaps because Terman organized the work into five sections: Small Boys, Unfathomable God; L’Dor Va’Dor; This Flickering World; The Service; and, Our Scriptures.
The writing draws from Terman’s experiences, as when he writes, “And that last night, after everyone/in the hotel fell asleep, my mother/led me down the rough stones,/whitened by stars so close,” in “At the Wailing Wall”; or, “I followed you down the switchback trail of the Grand Canyon/and we slept in a crevice, and we own that,” in “What We Own.”
Much of the work feels like a warm blanket woven with Terman’s memories.
Other poems speak of more universal themes, like “Night of the Broken Glass,” or “A Minyan Plus One,” dedicated to the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
Still other pieces would feel at home if they were read on a kibbutz during Israel’s early days, such as “Albert Einstein at the Soup Kitchen,” which includes the stanza, “I’m the bread and donut man/in this assembly line of volunteers/who gather for our three-hour/of weekly service and socialism.”
If any one theme dominates Terman’s book, it is community. In fact, he addresses that directly with the epigram taken from Hillel in Pirkei Avot: “Sever not thyself from the congregation.”
“I love that epigram,” Terman said. “Even if you hate community, you’re part of it so you have to help.”
“The Whole Mishpocha: New and Selected Jewish Poems, 1998-2023” will be published on Aug. 27 by Ben Yehuda Press. “The Concealment of Endless Light” will be published on Sept. 3 by Orison Books. Both are available now for preorder. PJC
David Rullo can be contacted at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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