WHY POETRY STILL MATTERS – POETRY

During the historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama, as told in his international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus, Rodger Kamenetz heard a penetrating question from His Holiness to the rabbis, “How does your spiritual practice purify afflictive emotions?” To Kamenetz, this seemed the most fundamental question to ask of any religion or philosophy of life. Embedded in a rich poetic narrative, Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter offers down to earth practices from “count your blessings,” to savoring perception, from dwelling on powerful memories, to the sacred encounters in dreams. He shows how giving birth to our images restores us to an imagination of the sacred.

Zion Square: Poems by Maxim D. Shrayer is a book of war, love, despair, and mourning. As the poet worked on the book, war continued to rage in Ukraine, the birthland of his grandfathers and maternal grandmother. On October 7, 2023, Israel, the homeland of Shrayer’s heart, was plunged into another war. The collection took its final shape after a trip there, during which Shrayer traveled up and down the country, lectured and gave readings, saw family and friends, and even picked apricots and plums in the company of another Jewish writer. Zion Square is ultimately a meditation on writing about wars while living between languages and cultures.

JEWISH LIFE & CULTURE PROGRAMS ARE PRESENTED BY

Buy Seeing Into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter – Kamenetz

Buy Zion Square: Poems – Shrayer