Air is Elastic, The
- Publisher
- Turnstone Press
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2018
- Category
- Canadian, Women Authors
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780888016331
- Publish Date
- Apr 2018
- List Price
- $17.00
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Description
Ella Zetsermann's latest collection of poetry pushes and pulls, stretches taught and snaps back upon the weight of history and the struggle to place oneself in the here and now. From her mother's kitchen to medieval Granada, The Air Is Elastic follows a life exiled from the familiar into the unexplored. Season's melt into ritual, raucous waxwings crash on glass and hearts are hidden in jars of jam along with the private details of our lives. Wistful and aching, loving and tender, Zeltsermann's poems are charged with the potential of a coming storm.
About the author
Ella Zeltserman is an award-winnipeg Soviet-born poet living in Edmonton, Canada, where she is an active member of the local poetry community. Her poetry has been published in a number of anthologies and magazines.
Excerpt: Air is Elastic, The (by (author) Ella Zeltserman)
Private details of our lives
Can you see my heart hidden in the jar of jam?
Can you touch the moonlight I baked
into the cake? Can you smell the night of love
in the chocolate raspberry tart? The pulse of my life
on the tip of a whisk. I watch the hot bead slide
from a spoon onto my nail. Eye the glistening globule
like my mother did. Years of experience to judge
it right. The drop from my heart sets tight. Jam
is ready. My love in the jar. I turn the bowl
of whipped egg whites upside down. They do not slide.
Ready, Aunt Ida would say. I offer you a taste of sunshine,
light summery day, happiness on your fork
with the milky-warm smell of vanilla. I teach my daughter
a little trick I use. Cook your beets in something sour. The magic
to turn earth's roots into gleaming, red rubies.
