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The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme
Winner of the 2000 Paterson Poetry Prize
About Marge Piercy's collection of her old and new poems that celebrate the Jewish experience, the poet Lyn Lifshin " The Art of Blessing the Day is an exquisite book. The whole collection is strong, passionate, and poignant, but the mother and daughter poems, fierce and emotional, with their intense ambivalence, pain and joy, themes of separation and reconnecting, are among the very strongest about that difficult relationship.
"These striking, original, beautifully sensuous poems do just that. Ordinary moments--a sunset, a walk, a private religious ritual--are so alive in poems like 'Shabbat moment' and 'Rosh Hodesh.' In the same way that she celebrates ordinary moments, small things become charged with memories and paper snowflakes, buttons, one bird, a bottle-cap flower made from a ginger ale top and crystal beads.
"She celebrates the body in rollicking, gusto-filled poems like 'Belly good' and 'The chuppah,' where 'our bodies open their portals wide.' So much that is richly 'hands that caressed you, . . . untied the knot of pleasure and loosened your flesh till it fluttered,' and lush praise for 'life in our spines, our throats, our knees, our genitals, our brains, our tongues.'
"I love the humor in poems like 'Eat fruit,' the nostalgia and joy in 'The rabbi's granddaughter and the Christmas tree,' the fresh, beautiful images of nature--'In winter . . .the sun hangs its wizened rosehip in the oaks.'
"I admire Piercy's sense of the past alive in the present, in personal and social history. The poems are memorials, like the yahrtzeit candle in a glass. 'We lose and we go on losing,' but the poems are never far from harsh joy, the joy that is 'the wine of life.'
"Growing up haunted by Holocaust ghosts is an echo throughout the book, and some of the strongest poems are about the Holocaust, poems that become the voices of those who had no 'What you carry in your blood is us, the books we did not write, music we could not make, a world gone from gristle to smoke, only as real now as words can make it.'
"Marge Piercy's words make such a moving variety of experiences beautifully and forcefully real."
About Marge Piercy's collection of her old and new poems that celebrate the Jewish experience, the poet Lyn Lifshin " The Art of Blessing the Day is an exquisite book. The whole collection is strong, passionate, and poignant, but the mother and daughter poems, fierce and emotional, with their intense ambivalence, pain and joy, themes of separation and reconnecting, are among the very strongest about that difficult relationship.
"These striking, original, beautifully sensuous poems do just that. Ordinary moments--a sunset, a walk, a private religious ritual--are so alive in poems like 'Shabbat moment' and 'Rosh Hodesh.' In the same way that she celebrates ordinary moments, small things become charged with memories and paper snowflakes, buttons, one bird, a bottle-cap flower made from a ginger ale top and crystal beads.
"She celebrates the body in rollicking, gusto-filled poems like 'Belly good' and 'The chuppah,' where 'our bodies open their portals wide.' So much that is richly 'hands that caressed you, . . . untied the knot of pleasure and loosened your flesh till it fluttered,' and lush praise for 'life in our spines, our throats, our knees, our genitals, our brains, our tongues.'
"I love the humor in poems like 'Eat fruit,' the nostalgia and joy in 'The rabbi's granddaughter and the Christmas tree,' the fresh, beautiful images of nature--'In winter . . .the sun hangs its wizened rosehip in the oaks.'
"I admire Piercy's sense of the past alive in the present, in personal and social history. The poems are memorials, like the yahrtzeit candle in a glass. 'We lose and we go on losing,' but the poems are never far from harsh joy, the joy that is 'the wine of life.'
"Growing up haunted by Holocaust ghosts is an echo throughout the book, and some of the strongest poems are about the Holocaust, poems that become the voices of those who had no 'What you carry in your blood is us, the books we did not write, music we could not make, a world gone from gristle to smoke, only as real now as words can make it.'
"Marge Piercy's words make such a moving variety of experiences beautifully and forcefully real."
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 1999
30 people are currently reading
486 people want to read
About the author
Marge Piercy
113 books925 followersMarge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.
Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family deeply affected by the Great Depression. She was the first in her family to attend college, studying at the University of Michigan. Winning a Hopwood Award for Poetry and Fiction (1957) enabled her to finish college and spend some time in France, and her formal schooling ended with an M.A. from Northwestern University. Her first book of poems, Breaking Camp, was published in 1968.
An indifferent student in her early years, Piercy developed a love of books when she came down with rheumatic fever in her mid-childhood and could do little but read. "It taught me that there's a different world there, that there were all these horizons that were quite different from what I could see," she said in a 1984 interview.
As of 2013, she is author of seventeen volumes of poems, among them The Moon is Always Female (1980, considered a feminist classic) and The Art of Blessing the Day (1999), as well as fifteen novels, one play (The Last White Class, co-authored with her third and current husband Ira Wood), one collection of essays (Parti-colored Blocks for a Quilt), one non-fiction book, and one memoir.
Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns, although her settings vary. While Body of Glass (published in the US as He, She and It) is a science fiction novel that won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, City of Darkness, City of Light is set during the French Revolution. Other of her novels, such as Summer People and The Longings of Women are set during the modern day. All of her books share a focus on women's lives.
Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) mixes a time travel story with issues of social justice, feminism, and the treatment of the mentally ill. This novel is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic. William Gibson has credited Woman on the Edge of Time as the birthplace of Cyberpunk. Piercy tells this in an introduction to Body of Glass. Body of Glass (He, She and It) (1991) postulates an environmentally ruined world dominated by sprawling mega-cities and a futuristic version of the Internet, through which Piercy weaves elements of Jewish mysticism and the legend of the Golem, although a key story element is the main character's attempts to regain custody of her young son.
Many of Piercy's novels tell their stories from the viewpoints of multiple characters, often including a first-person voice among numerous third-person narratives. Her World War II historical novel, Gone To Soldiers (1987) follows the lives of nine major characters in the United States, Europe and Asia. The first-person account in Gone To Soldiers is the diary of French teenager Jacqueline Levy-Monot, who is also followed in a third-person account after her capture by the Nazis.
Piercy's poetry tends to be highly personal free verse and often addresses the same concern with feminist and social issues. Her work shows commitment to the dream of social change (what she might call, in Judaic terms, tikkun olam, or the repair of the world), rooted in story, the wheel of the Jewish year, and a range of landscapes and settings.
She lives in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with her husband, Ira Wood.
(from Wikipedia)
Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family deeply affected by the Great Depression. She was the first in her family to attend college, studying at the University of Michigan. Winning a Hopwood Award for Poetry and Fiction (1957) enabled her to finish college and spend some time in France, and her formal schooling ended with an M.A. from Northwestern University. Her first book of poems, Breaking Camp, was published in 1968.
An indifferent student in her early years, Piercy developed a love of books when she came down with rheumatic fever in her mid-childhood and could do little but read. "It taught me that there's a different world there, that there were all these horizons that were quite different from what I could see," she said in a 1984 interview.
As of 2013, she is author of seventeen volumes of poems, among them The Moon is Always Female (1980, considered a feminist classic) and The Art of Blessing the Day (1999), as well as fifteen novels, one play (The Last White Class, co-authored with her third and current husband Ira Wood), one collection of essays (Parti-colored Blocks for a Quilt), one non-fiction book, and one memoir.
Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns, although her settings vary. While Body of Glass (published in the US as He, She and It) is a science fiction novel that won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, City of Darkness, City of Light is set during the French Revolution. Other of her novels, such as Summer People and The Longings of Women are set during the modern day. All of her books share a focus on women's lives.
Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) mixes a time travel story with issues of social justice, feminism, and the treatment of the mentally ill. This novel is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic. William Gibson has credited Woman on the Edge of Time as the birthplace of Cyberpunk. Piercy tells this in an introduction to Body of Glass. Body of Glass (He, She and It) (1991) postulates an environmentally ruined world dominated by sprawling mega-cities and a futuristic version of the Internet, through which Piercy weaves elements of Jewish mysticism and the legend of the Golem, although a key story element is the main character's attempts to regain custody of her young son.
Many of Piercy's novels tell their stories from the viewpoints of multiple characters, often including a first-person voice among numerous third-person narratives. Her World War II historical novel, Gone To Soldiers (1987) follows the lives of nine major characters in the United States, Europe and Asia. The first-person account in Gone To Soldiers is the diary of French teenager Jacqueline Levy-Monot, who is also followed in a third-person account after her capture by the Nazis.
Piercy's poetry tends to be highly personal free verse and often addresses the same concern with feminist and social issues. Her work shows commitment to the dream of social change (what she might call, in Judaic terms, tikkun olam, or the repair of the world), rooted in story, the wheel of the Jewish year, and a range of landscapes and settings.
She lives in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with her husband, Ira Wood.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 7, 2025
The Discipline Of Blessings
Among the many blessings to be found in American literature and poetry are the works of American-Jewish writers. Jewish-American poets have been celebrated in two recent anthologies: "Telling and Remembering" edited by Steven Rubin and "Jewish-American Poetry" edited by Jonathan Barron and Eric Sellinger. Ever since Emma Lazarus, writing in the late 19th Century, the poetry written by American Jewish women has played a large part in this literature.
Marge Piercy may well be the best of the Jewish-American poets writing today. Her work is featured prominently in both the Rubin and the Barron and Sellinger anthologies with the latter collection including an essay as well. Both anthologies draw heavily from Ms. Piercy's "The Art of Blessing the Day" which prompted me to explore the entire volume.
The book as written, the dedication states, "for all who may find here poems that speak to their identity, their history, their desire for ritual -- ritual that may work for them". The collection is, indeed, specifically Jewish but its themes transcend any particular religious commitment and reach out to those who seek themselves in a spiritual path. The broad theme of the book is announced in the title poem (from which I have taken the title of this review) as "to taste/each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet/ and the salty, and be glad for what does not hurt." Again "Bless whatever you can/with eyes and hands and tongue. If you/can't bless it, get ready to make it new."
I was struck by the unity of the collection. Unlike most books of poetry where the reader may pick and choose among poems, this collection is best read as an integral whole from beginning to end. The unity of the collection is particularly impressive because many of the poems had been published earlier in a variety of places.
The book is divided into six sections with themes running cross-currently. The opening section, "Family" describes the poet's difficult relationship with her mother and her loving relationship with her old-world grandmother. The section on her marriage was for me the most beautiful of the book with its celebration of erotic, physical and spiritual love. My favorite poem in the third section, "repair of the world" is the poem "to be of use" which celebrates the value of the world of work. (too infrequently praised). The next section is titled "Of history and Interpretation", explores women's issues and the Holocaust, as seen from the eyes of an American, among other themes.
The collection's final two sections "Prayer" and "The Year" are based respectively on the daily liturgy used in Judaism and on the yearly cycle of the Jewish holidays including the New Year, the Day of Atonement and Passover. Her versions of the traditional prayers I found insightful and eloquent.
Piercy writes beautifully, with elegance and understatement. Her poetry, with its reflections on the past and on nature and on her surroundings is informed by love rather than anger and by an effort to understand. It is a book that may be turned to repeatedly and thought about over time.
Poetry is an underappreciated art in America, even though many of our writers have shown high achievement. This book is one woman's contribution to the form.
Robin Friedman
Among the many blessings to be found in American literature and poetry are the works of American-Jewish writers. Jewish-American poets have been celebrated in two recent anthologies: "Telling and Remembering" edited by Steven Rubin and "Jewish-American Poetry" edited by Jonathan Barron and Eric Sellinger. Ever since Emma Lazarus, writing in the late 19th Century, the poetry written by American Jewish women has played a large part in this literature.
Marge Piercy may well be the best of the Jewish-American poets writing today. Her work is featured prominently in both the Rubin and the Barron and Sellinger anthologies with the latter collection including an essay as well. Both anthologies draw heavily from Ms. Piercy's "The Art of Blessing the Day" which prompted me to explore the entire volume.
The book as written, the dedication states, "for all who may find here poems that speak to their identity, their history, their desire for ritual -- ritual that may work for them". The collection is, indeed, specifically Jewish but its themes transcend any particular religious commitment and reach out to those who seek themselves in a spiritual path. The broad theme of the book is announced in the title poem (from which I have taken the title of this review) as "to taste/each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet/ and the salty, and be glad for what does not hurt." Again "Bless whatever you can/with eyes and hands and tongue. If you/can't bless it, get ready to make it new."
I was struck by the unity of the collection. Unlike most books of poetry where the reader may pick and choose among poems, this collection is best read as an integral whole from beginning to end. The unity of the collection is particularly impressive because many of the poems had been published earlier in a variety of places.
The book is divided into six sections with themes running cross-currently. The opening section, "Family" describes the poet's difficult relationship with her mother and her loving relationship with her old-world grandmother. The section on her marriage was for me the most beautiful of the book with its celebration of erotic, physical and spiritual love. My favorite poem in the third section, "repair of the world" is the poem "to be of use" which celebrates the value of the world of work. (too infrequently praised). The next section is titled "Of history and Interpretation", explores women's issues and the Holocaust, as seen from the eyes of an American, among other themes.
The collection's final two sections "Prayer" and "The Year" are based respectively on the daily liturgy used in Judaism and on the yearly cycle of the Jewish holidays including the New Year, the Day of Atonement and Passover. Her versions of the traditional prayers I found insightful and eloquent.
Piercy writes beautifully, with elegance and understatement. Her poetry, with its reflections on the past and on nature and on her surroundings is informed by love rather than anger and by an effort to understand. It is a book that may be turned to repeatedly and thought about over time.
Poetry is an underappreciated art in America, even though many of our writers have shown high achievement. This book is one woman's contribution to the form.
Robin Friedman
September 22, 2014
I started attending Friday night Shabbat services at a Jewish temple in my city at the recommendation of a friend when discussing ways to understand the Old Testament better. I had never before been exposed to Judaism, and I have fallen in love with this trio from the experience: 1) setting aside an evening a week to calm down. Yes, listening to a lot of Hebrew song and chanting does this for me. It has significantly impacted my understanding of the Christian notion of Sabbath. 2) the passionate, unapologetic, accomplished and outgoing women that attend the congregation and 3) the prayers. Observing/experiencing Jewish prayer from the back row of the synagogue has changed the way I think about prayer. This book for me was an appreciation experience in the beautiful prayers I had already been exposed to, and something I wanted to finish before the High Holy Days which start this Wednesday with Rosh Hashanah. To me Jewish prayers are very "outward," focusing on the greatness of God and, without being self-demeaning, iterating the somewhat insignificance of our small personal day-to-day struggles and instead giving way for the bigger human experience of relating to divinity and to each other. Additionally, I have a tendency to visualize problems and seek solutions through prayer, Jewish prayer goes higher to me in that it visualizes God's omnipotence and endorses reliance on Him in a way that to me builds faith, trust, and contentment. I have never been a huge fan of poetry, but have found myself calmed by the poetic nature of Jewish prayer. This book was something similar - the poetry spoke to my heart, my mind, and my faith simultaneously.
September 27, 2020
The autobiographical poems in the first section were sometimes edgy and hard for me to relate to, but as Piercy wrote about Jewish celebrations and rituals, there was a tenderness and response to shared experience that touched me. I read this for a book discussion with Jewish, Muslim and other Christian women. It was a rich conversation about faith, food and family and enhanced my appreciation of this poetry.
October 17, 2010
I was really looking forward to this book, but the poems did not resonate with me. I really recommend Merle Feld's 'a spiritual life' for life cycle and Jewish faith poems. Marge Piercy poems about her relationship with her mother seemed the strongest to me, and may speak strongly to a woman with a bitter, angry mother. Not me, blessedly.
February 3, 2017
I picked this up for class but really liked reading it so I read it all
March 16, 2021
This will be my second reading of this book.
February 14, 2019
It took me a really long time to get into this, I think part of it was that this was fairly abstract poetry in a lot of ways, which isn't really my cup of tea. Also, a lot of the poems were more about personal angst than Jewish themes and wasn't really what I was looking for in this collection.
The second half, the 3rd and 4th books in particular, were MUCH stronger and more what I expected from this. My rating would be higher if the whole thing were like this section. There were some really amazing poems that were very profound, it was a shame they were buried in with poems that didn't seem to fit the collection focus.
Because it got better, 2.5 stars. But barely.
The second half, the 3rd and 4th books in particular, were MUCH stronger and more what I expected from this. My rating would be higher if the whole thing were like this section. There were some really amazing poems that were very profound, it was a shame they were buried in with poems that didn't seem to fit the collection focus.
Because it got better, 2.5 stars. But barely.
March 24, 2020
a very well-written, Marge Piercy-esq collection. you don’t have to be religious in order to enjoy the language & the imagery & relate with the themes expressed in these poems. my only critique is that the collection felt a bit long — once I reached page 130 or so I just wanted to be done with it. but either way, wonderful writing from a wonderful poet!
January 7, 2024
Beyond phenomenal. Being Jewish is such a broad spectrum of experiences, but Piercy does such a good job making poems that will resonate with most of us. The poem the book is titled after is one of my favorites of all time.
June 7, 2017
The poem "To Be of Use" is great
January 24, 2019
Not all of the poems are expressly Jewish but the heritage and history is present in all.
January 2, 2023
A keeper. I mean, really, I keep it around. Piercy is a wonderful poet and I needed the Jewish content.
April 2, 2023
These poems are the literary equivalent of loam - dense, earthy, rank with life and death, and if you plant something in them (like yourself) it will grow and grow and grow.
February 12, 2009
This book *does* have 'To be of use', and even many more treasures!
This is a collection of works prior and current, collected by theme:
Mishpocheh (Family)
The Chuppah (Marriage)
Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World)
That's where 'To be of use' is
Toldot, Midrashim (Of History and Interpretation)
Tefillah (Prayer)
Ha-Shanah (the Year)
This is an inclusive book, while also strongly Jewish. Marge dedicates it: 'FOr all who may find here poems that speak to their identity, their history, their desire for ritual -- ritual that may work for them -- these poems are yours as well as mine.
There are threads of political activism throughout, and an embrace of the full tapestry of life.
Here's a favorite excerpt from the title work, which encapsulates the flavors within:
'But the discipline of blessings is to taste each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet and the salty, and be glad for what does not hurt. The art is in compressing attention to each little and big blossom of the tree of life, to let the tongue sing each fruit, its savor, its aroma and its use.
Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.
This is a collection of works prior and current, collected by theme:
Mishpocheh (Family)
The Chuppah (Marriage)
Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World)
That's where 'To be of use' is
Toldot, Midrashim (Of History and Interpretation)
Tefillah (Prayer)
Ha-Shanah (the Year)
This is an inclusive book, while also strongly Jewish. Marge dedicates it: 'FOr all who may find here poems that speak to their identity, their history, their desire for ritual -- ritual that may work for them -- these poems are yours as well as mine.
There are threads of political activism throughout, and an embrace of the full tapestry of life.
Here's a favorite excerpt from the title work, which encapsulates the flavors within:
'But the discipline of blessings is to taste each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet and the salty, and be glad for what does not hurt. The art is in compressing attention to each little and big blossom of the tree of life, to let the tongue sing each fruit, its savor, its aroma and its use.
Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.
July 6, 2014
This collection of poetry is moving and inspiring generally, but especially so if the reader is Jewish. Piercy is an amazing poet, and this collection feels completely contemporary, even though it was published 15 years ago.
I highly recommend it and think it would be a great book to read in preparation for the High Holidays.
I highly recommend it and think it would be a great book to read in preparation for the High Holidays.
August 3, 2010
Favorite Poems from this collection are "The Art of Blessing the Day" and "My Mother's Body." I also loved: "The Wine," "House Built of Breath," "To Be of Use," and "For She is the Tree of Life."
September 8, 2014
This is a more Jewish-based collection of Marge Piercy's poetry. Made a very good discussion. Themes of mother-daughter relationships and death and dying. (Review by Cambridge 1)
August 7, 2014
Meaningful
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews