Publisher Description

In this comprehensive collection of Ellie Schoenfeld's poems, "...one finds a tenderness mixed with bewilderment, a feeling of awe at the great mystery of life, and a longing," according to Louis Jenkins. Schoenfeld's work is accessible, amusing, and gently elegiac in tone. She has been called "a voice of warm dry humor." This collection includes the complete spectrum of Ellie's poetry, both retrospective and new.

Review

In Ellie Schoenfeld's poems, one finds a tenderness mixed with bewilderment, a feeling of awe at the great mystery of life, and a longing. She says, "I want death to be like England / you go there for awhile / but then you come back." There is in the poems a deep affection for the earth, and this earthly life, which she expresses with lyricism and wit. - Louis Jenkins, author of "North of the Cities" and "European Shoes" If a voice of warm dry humor is possible in the chilly Midwest, it is in this collection. "The Dark Honey" sits quite well, thank you, amongst the great literary achievements of the North Coast, indeed, the headwaters of the Mississippi. Schoenfeld rocks with the best of them! - Denise Sweet, author of "Know By Heart" and "Songs for Discharming," and Wisconsin Poet Laureate, 2004-2008 Ellie Schoenfeld's poetry acts as a charm against complacency. In "The Dark Honey," desire always trumps satiation. The horizon, with its promising light and suggestive outlines, keeps calling the poet forward. Yet even before the "secret possible futures" arrive, the pilgrim in these poems is anticipating "the long quiet ahead." An elegiac quality therefore colors these pages, giving them a double poignancy of desire and loss. When tulip bulbs "whisper their voluptuous ideas" to Schoenfeld, we're persuaded, too, given the voluptuousness of her work itself, which is the kind that could bring back to poetry those who've given up on it. - Philip Dacey, author of "Vertebrae Rosaries"

Prizes

Winner of Northeastern Minnesota Book Award (Poetry) 2009

Details