Publisher's Synopsis
Poetry. What a pleasure to read Eileen Brilliant's wondrous poems; some, clear-eyed riddles from 'the anarchy of dreams, ' others helpless to hide the secret self from herself, or from us, her fortunate readers. She wishes to leave her mark, wishes to be faithful, while admitting 'to be human is to be faithless.' This kind of honesty about love, longing and being human, persists throughout the book. IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS, BEGIN is a treasure.--Frances Richey
IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS, BEGIN is written from a place where faith is the evidence of things not seen. The poet's mission here is to build the visionary bridge between the unheard and the unsaid, from where the paper it is written on has ears to where the birds are singing by magic.--Andrew Kaufman As Eileen Brilliant transcribes the arc of her life through memories of family and her evolving self, her courageous suite of poems penetrates into the nature of love, in all its guises. 'Because paper is an ear, ' as she writes, it is through words on the page that we join her as she dives into 'those / absent places where a heart should be home.' Ultimately, triumphantly, she arrives at that place where memory has space to fade into the 'calm of new connection'--home, at last, in 'the living poem' that truly and surely embraces love--which permits us, generously, in her company, to 'continue on.'--Bo Niles
