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.

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,