Movements, Movements

These poems tell their stories with the pulsing language of music—which is also the language of silence and held breath—pressing their ears to all that is miraculous and mundane. Here, the resonant strings of song, love, and faith harmonize into one brilliant chord pulling us through the soundscapes of human relationships, whimsical artmaking, and unapologetic womanhood. But the music in these poems is also vibrantly tactile and visual, beating with memory, wildness, heritage, humor, and all those textured things that fill a life and keep us tethered to Earth. At times, her audacious joy is bubbling up and over, while at others, her thoughtful voice questions us ever so quietly. In Movements, Rivka Epstein Hattin has given us a delightful debut poetry collection that not only sings out loud, but “listens with both eyes / and two hearts.”