slight faith

“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