Description
Poetry. Women’s Studies. BREAKFAST WITH ALLEN GINSBERG is a collection of fifty poems, some very funny and others very personal and poignant, written by the author of GOD IS A TREE AND OTHER MIDDLE-AGE PRAYERS (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2008) and The Book Doctor (fiction). Cohen has several poems about writing, but most of them are about her friends and family, about daily observations of life both in New York City and in a small village in the Catskills. These poems will make a reader smile, sometimes laugh, almost always reflect on his or her own daily existence and human interactions.
Esther Cohen (Book Doctor, Don’t Mind Me and Other Jewish Lies, GOD IS A TREE AND OTHER MIDDLE-AGED PRAYERS, PAINTING BROOKLYN and No Charge for Looking) lives in New York City where she is Executive Director of Bread and Roses, the national non-profit cultural program of New York’s union for health care workers. Winner of a Pure Visionary Award for a photographic project she initiated to give cameras and photography lessons to working men and women across the country, Cohen is a storyteller and humorist. Esther Cohen writes a poem a day: http://esthercohen.com/
Ruth Sergel –
Wry, observant + full of heart. These poems by Esther Cohen carry a tenderness for all the oddities of our mixed up humanity. I found myself torn – wanting to read it right through but also wanting to savor it for a long, slow read. Made me want to call out to a friend Hey! Did you read this one… beautiful work. – Ruth Sergel
Lee Noonan –
Esther appeared on my doorstop almost 30 years ago for a massage because she found me in a magazine. Or was it for homeopathy? I was in there for both. I don’t remember. But I do remember her voice in life, and her voice jumps off every page of BREAKFAST WITH ALLEN GINSBERG. So, I must assume that her life is poetry. These pages read like a refreshing saga of encounters with thoughts, with thoughtful people, or just plain people, with cultures and moments. But most of all, these poems reveal the rhythm, the cadence of inner Esther. And we are all richer for that revelation. Breakfast, anyone? – Lee Noonan