Losing It

Poetry. LOSING IT is about growing old but the power of the poems suggests the opposite, finding it: the poignance of mature vision. As Edward Hirsch notes, The modern Yiddish poets (‘Glatshteyn, Sutzkever, Moyshe-Leyb– / show me your letters, words, rhythms’) are the spiritual guides to Richard Fein’s fine new book, which has a kind of Jewish saudade–a bittersweet nostalgia not just for something gone, but also a yearning for what might have been. LOSING IT is a book that beautifully pinpoints its lost worlds.