New book: THE SAUNA IS FULL OF MAIDS, POEMS AND PHOTOS (Shanti Arts Press)AVAILABLE NOW https://www.amazon.com/Sauna-Full-Maids-Cheryl-Fish/dp/195165174X/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1623949379&refinements=p_27%3ACheryl+J.+Fish&s=books&sr=1-4“Steeped in the rich images of the Finnish north, Cheryl J. Fish’s latest collection of poetry is a meditation on how Finnish life and experiences entangle with mythic pasts and global modernities. Fish’s verse brilliantly captures the complex juxtapositions that characterize life in Finland today—from steaming saunas to nuclear reactors, from the Kalevala to Tom of Finland exhibitions, from Sámi lávvus to boozy Helsinki karaoke pubs. In her poetry, the mythologic remains with us, blooming in renewal in the everyday acts of diverse people: gay Helsinki; an immigrant from Afghanistan in a tiny northern village; a father rowing a boat with his dreadlocked son. The collection has a breath and cadence to it like a naked run over snow-covered ground, from a hot sauna to the cold sea.” | Excerpt of poem that appeared in The Village Voice and Response
and is included in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-anthology-of-contemporary-jewish-american-poetry-9781441125576/ GENERATION X, CROWN HEIGHTS, 1995
Generation X Lubavich boys listening to Sun Ra and getting high eating kosher coldcuts by the pound mingling halakah and vodka can you reverse baal t'shuvah? But in the streets near home, they still wear their yarmulkes and if momma begs, will straggle into Shul
In Crown Heights staying out all night smoking with Rastas on Utica-- Six, seven, eight, ten children in two-family homes. Studying in Yeshivas no science, no math, no sex ed--you get married, go to bed. Everything is in the Talmud. Lapsed Lubavitch boys dancing with voluptuous Caribbean women in midnight discos screwing maybe a secular Jew... __________________________________________ excerpt of poem that appeared in Talisman
U N D U L A T I O N
So many boats cruise by awakening criss-crosses in Jersey's pierced hourglass
this is the Rhine, or up the Seine, it's about proper width and color, almost palpable.
Radiant sun releases apologies, a million little frogs...
It's your move. Come at me straight. Anywhere isn't elsewhere
the sun sinks earlier and earlier September a reminder of purpose-- the writing in the book.
This is the Hudson: strange glistening body out my window... ___________________________________________________________________ SONGS CAPTIVATE THE TRAVELER (from THE SAUNA IS FULL OF MAIDS) Could it be a sha-man, or a sha-woman blows through this wind and water? Joik; poetry; exoneration. Songs captivate the traveler. Human-animal-stone-tree. Rituals, rivalries. We tried to find my spirit guide in her Brooklyn apartment. Is Is it a turtle, a rabbit, a magpie? We don’t know. The Hebrew word for soul, nephesh denotes all animal life.
Poems begin and end as songs. How can the cuckoo bless a forest if only one tree is left unfelled? I dwell in the Northland for inspired intervals. Lapland. Ostrobothnia. Helsinki. Troms-Finnmark. Tampere. I apologize for my Americanness. The sound of my voice, Voice of my sounds interferes with sky shapes. Impatient with what separates us. Meet me again soon..
Silence. River I miss your shadows. |