Overview

The poems in The Sky Will Overtake You abound in a rare, infectious, and hard-won ecstasy, the consequence-at least in part-of exquisite attention to whatever they approach. They celebrate ""the days laid out like jewels / on a merchant's table"" even as they acknowledge grief and loss and the knowledge that ""[There is] no keeping anything."" These poems make ephemerality palpable, establishing it as an essential feature of what we treasure. ""What Do You Have?"" asks a poem's title. Its final lines respond, ""Only this bit of time, / like clouds unforming- / even as you point to it, // gone."" -JACQUELINE OSHEROW, author of Divine Ratios

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9781734531381

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Reviews

In her latest collection, The Sky Will Overtake You, Marcia Falk not only celebrates but also elegizes ""this loving, dying world,"" examining the lyrical responsibilities of the poet: to create meaning and beauty, to grieve what's lost, and to express gratitude for every fragile, tenuous moment of being human. Filled with expertly rendered, painterly details that evoke a landscape made vivid with trees, birds, and all kinds of exquisite blossoms, this gorgeous book asks readers to reflect on our own delicate lives. Falk urges us to consider how we ""belong to the universe"" and how, ultimately, we are each ""buffeted // and set aloft, / a twig in the wind."" - JEHANNE DUBROW, author of Wild Kingdom Marcia Falk is a poet's poet. With supreme delicacy and precision, she creates a world of sensuality and longing. Her wondrous poems are work to be held to the heart, ""riches on riches."" - LI-YOUNG LEE, author of The Invention of the Darling

Author Information

Marcia Falk is widely known in the progressive Jewish world for her poetic re-creations of Hebrew and English prayer. Her translation of the biblical Song of Songs is considered a modern classic. In addition to her books of poetry, she has published book-length translations of modern Hebrew and Yiddish women poets. A lifelong artist, Marcia began art classes as a child at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and later studied painting at the Art Students League, where she is a Life Member. Her pastel drawing appears on the cover of The Sky Will Overtake You. More of her art, as well as excerpts from her books, can be viewed at marciafalk.com. Marcia grew up in metropolitan New York and now lives in northern California with her spouse, poet Steve Rood. Their son, Abraham Gilead Falk-Rood, teaches English and music to immigrant teenagers in a public high school.

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