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"""Since Jay's death,"" writes Zev Shanken, ""I have come to value the proverb's insight into the habits, mannerisms, and values that define a loved one's presence. And absence. The proverb--If I try to be like him, who will be like me?--does not claim the speaker to be better, but only rightfully necessary and simply irreplaceable. In this first year of Jay's absence, I have come to understand the proverb as a lens through which to see Jay's approach to family, friends, art, identity, and Judaism. In memory of Jay I have chosen that proverb for the title of this book."" The collection includes earlier poems, ""a public memorial to Jay Greenspan as a representative of our generation's struggles to develop new strategies for making life holy, a struggle that brought a number of us together as the 'New York Havera' on New York's Upper West Side in the 1970s."" But, he goes on, it ""honors Jay most, not so much by the poems that mention him by name, nor the ones that address global concerns he and I shared, nor even by my using one of his favoriteYiddish proverbs as a title for this book, but rather by the other poems in this book, the poems that sprang from the permission Jay's affection gave this poet to be himself."" The result is a riveting act of testimony, integrity, and joy."

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9781946989215

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Terrific energy is everywhere displayed in Zev Shanken's poetry. He is a dynamo ofthought, passion, human contact, Jewish wisdom culture, memory-work, love for poetry, love for family, and for saying-it-like-it-is. If you wonder why people still scratch their heads when they read poetry, or if you do, please read this book, where you will find a human being--a mensch--coming to grips with the puzzles and beauties of human existence in charged language that is accessible to everyone. --Bill Zavatsky, poet and tanslator This splended successor to Memory Tricks confirms the richness and human power of Shanken's voice. In a poetry scene where mere versifying or cleverness often takes the place of actual substance, his work shines like light on metal. The poems have great tonal range and variety--from hilarious to seriousand full of love--and they are truly, inescapably arresting. I urgeyou to read this book: It will lift your spirits. --Barry Sheinkopf, author of What There Was: New Poems, and Make It Good: The Stories in My Early Life Shanken succeeds wonderfully here in making his readers aware of his own interesting, complex, often conflicting views, emotions and attitudes--towards the contemporary politics of his country, his Judaism, his family, his past, and his great friend Jay. I highly recommend this book. --Haim Marantz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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