Longing: Poems of a Life

Merle Feld

Nov 2022 · CCAR Press

About this ebook

What do we long for as we carry the traumas of our past and look into the future with guarded hope? In Longing: Poems of a Life, acclaimed poet Merle Feld tells her intensely personal story while naming profound human experience. Feld opens forbidden doors and long-shuttered windows, peering through the lattices of memory at moments of anguish, breaking, blessing, surviving. We accompany her through early family violence, isolation, the discovery of community and love; we witness her climb from the loss of possibility to the assertion of self-worth and purpose. Threading through the years are conversations with a mother long gone--"a slip of a girl" whose misplaced loyalty and endless capacity for loving are both cautionary tale and guidepost. Deeply Jewish yet universal, these gripping poems will stay with you.

Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

About the author

Merle Feld is an esteemed and beloved poet. She is the author of a memoir in poetry and prose—A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and Jewish Tradition—and a poetry collection, Finding Words. Her poems appear in a variety of groundbreaking volumes, including Mishkan HaSeder, Mahzor Lev Shalem, Siddur Lev Shalem, and The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. Her award-winning plays The Gates are Closing and Across the Jordan have been presented nationally and internationally. Since 2000, she has been a pioneer in the field of spiritual writing, guiding rabbis, adult seekers, and clergy students across denominations to explore and deepen their spiritual lives (derekh.org). A recipient of honors for poetry, playwriting, and activism, Merle has shared her life with Rabbi Edward Feld, a distinguished spiritual leader and author, with whom she has parented two children, Lisa and Uri.