Brightness Fall Poems by Ellen Steinbaum

Brightness Fall

Poems

by Ellen Steinbaum

CW Books

Cincinnati OH

Copyright © 2013 by Ellen Steinbaum

83 pages, softbound, no price listed

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

To the long line of women who have written books of “confessional” poetry, we can add Ellen Steinbaum, whose most recent book is Brightness Falls. Steinbaum’s poetry is  gentle and sympathetic to our senses, certainly as revealing as her predecessors who write about their lives and loves.      

There are four sections to this book, the first, “Begin Again”  starts with untethered and is followed by begin again, two fifteen line poems in which we learn she is alone with, in the first a “solace/of pillows” and in the second “with beach grass blade/for compass.”

In the first scenario we can see her alone in her bed, the empty pillow next to her where he late husband would have been,  something everyone experiences with the loss of a partner.  In the second poem there is another recollection with which we can associate, our confusion at suddenly being alone and like wind blowing through grass and the grass perhaps bending in so many directions, we find ourselves directionless, unsure of where we want to  go or should, not metaphorically, but actually.

In one of her longer poems Steinbaum reveals what life was like for her before she met her new husband, though we do not learn how much time has passed after the death of her first husband before the new relationship.

Before I Met Him

I was fine

gave dinner parties

grew a garden

read the papers

paid my bills

repainted rooms and

bought new dishes

went to ballets

wrote my will

had a new book out

visited family  

tried new recipes

tried new wines

made new friends and

wrote new poems

had (small) adventures

I was fine

I was fine

had (small) adventures

wrote new poems

made new friends and

tried new wines

tried new recipes

visited family

had a new book out

wrote my will

went to ballets

bought new dishes

repainted rooms and

paid my bills

grew a garden

gave dinner parties

I was fine

I was fine

Males and females can associate with the emotions of having a departed spouse and the need to move on in life. Perhaps everyone’s method is different, but the underlying attempts to restart and reshape are all there.

Unlike some who might search for romance and a new beginning, there are those who do not consciously make the effort.

widow’s walk

she didn’t want to

want again

yearn for arms

around her

arms holding her

new kisses

skin warmed

by new hands

she didn’t want to dance

drop dizzily

from brightness

to deep shadow

want to go instead

on her even way

stay small and

folded from the light

never venture

into crowded streets

she never wanted

she never

dreamed

This poem reflects both the prelude to hope and the movement to the next phase of a life, from to companionship to love confirmed by the first stanza of:

there will be worse (I)

after the argument

he says there will

be worse and I

think those

are words of love

There are times when readers wonder if Steinbaum is writing about her deceased husband or her new mate. There are times when readers are left with no doubt it is about the present and the future, and while brightness may fall, a new sun rises for her.

This book is a “must read” for everyone who has survived and recovered from loss.  It is for everyone else as well.

__________________________________________

Zvi A. Sesling

Reviewer for Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene

Author, King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Press)

Author,  Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva Press)

Publisher, Muddy River Books

Editor, Muddy River Poetry Review

Editor, Bagel Bards Anthologies 7& 8