slight faith - Risa Denenberg

“The beauty of faith isn’t so much about paradise as it is
the absence before, the gap we must leap in order to land.
In her meditative and profound book slight faith, Risa
Denenberg plants her feet before the divide, wrestles with
the angels of loss and doubt. ‘There is nothing,’ Denenberg
writes, ‘on the other side for certainty to dine on.’ Yet,
there is so much in this book that nourishes.
‘These are days of awe,’ she writes and while reading
these poems I too am opened up to a sense of fear and
wonder. These poems speak to the sacred within and
outside of us. There is death and pain but inevitably there
is ‘the slipperiness of hope.’ There is an almost reluctant
acceptance of pleasure. ‘I’ve grown passably / fond of
rain,’ she says and I can’t help but smile as she tries for
something ‘more pastoral.’
Despite the scope of Denenberg’s poetry, which spans
generations and religions and loves, her talent for restraint
offers the subtle power and influence of a musical score.
It is a difficult and fine balance to strike. Although she
may write from and for the perspective of those who only
praise or lament, she recognizes the very different silences
that come after. We are given invaluable moments of
introspection. Tightly crafted, wise with a quietly passionate
heart, slight faith will make a reader leap and marvel.”
—Michael Schmeltzer, author of Blood Song