A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through The Eyes Of Poets [Paperback]

Rick Lupert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2008

36 Poets reinterpret the traditional themes and text of the Passover Haggadah through their own unique lenses. Edited by Los Angeles Poet Rick Lupert (Creator of the Poetry Super Highway) Includes work from Helen Bar-Lev, Lynne Bronstein, Salvatore Buttaci, Howard Camner, Larry Colker, devin davis, Barbara Elovic, Robert Klein Engler, David Gershator, Leslie Halpern, Claudia Handler, Daniel Y. Harris, Elizabeth Iannaci, Marc Jampole, Rachel Kann, Beth Kanter, Peggy Landsman, Michael Levy, Jake Marmer, Ellyn Maybe, Heather McNaugher, Daniel Olivas, Judith Pacht, Jaimes Palacio, Jonathan Penton, Joan Pond, Lanie Shanzyra P. Rebancos, Richard Schiffman, G. David Schwartz, Adam Shechter, Diana Sher, Scott Alixander Sonders, Julia Stein, S. Thomas Summers, Pam Ward and Misha Weidman.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Los Angeles Poet Rick Lupert has been involved with poetry since 1990. He created and maintained the Poetry Super Highway ( http://www.poetrysuperhighway.com ) a major resource and online publication for poets and writers. He has hosted the long running Cobalt Cafe Poetry reading in Southern California since 1994. He is the author of 11 collections of poetry, most recently "A Man With No teeth Serves Us Breakfast" and edited "A Poet's Haggadah." Rick works as a free-lance graphic designer and music teacher in Jewish settings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 106 pages
• Publisher: Ain't Got No Press (April 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972755586
• ISBN-13: 978-0972755580
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Lupert has been involved in the Los Angeles poetry community since 1990. He served for two years as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets, a non-profit organization started in 1980 which produces a regular reading series and publications out of the San Fernando Valley. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, including The Los Angeles Times, Chiron Review, Zuzu's Petals, Caffeine Magazine, Blue Satellite and others. He edited A Poet's Haggadah: Passover through the Eyes of Poets anthology and is the author of twelve books: Paris: It's The Cheese, I Am My Own Orange County, Mowing Fargo, I'm a Jew. Are You?, Feeeding Holy Cats, Stolen Mummies, I'd Like to Bake Your Goods, A Man With No Teeth Serves Us Breakfast, We Put Things In Our Mouths (Ain't Got No Press), Lizard King of the Laundromat, Brendan Constantine is My Kind of Town (Inevitable Press) and Up Liberty's Skirt (Cassowary Press). He has hosted the long running Cobalt Cafe reading series in Canoga Park since 1994 and is regularly featured at venues throughout Southern California.

Rick created and maintains the Poetry Super Highway, a major internet resource for poets. (PoetrySuperHighway.com)

Currently Rick works as the music teacher and graphic and web designer for Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA and for anyone who would like to help pay his mortgage.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique take on Passover themes, December 26, 2008

By 

Alissa Fontaine (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through The Eyes Of Poets (Paperback)

Whereas it's not exactly a Haggadah in the traditional sense, I think that may be the point, reinterpretation...the poems are arranged thematically in sections corresponding with the order of the seder so it's an easy tool to enhance a seder with creative readings (kind of like services at camp.) This is a unique take on Passover with many different voices represented. I didn't connect with every poem but like any anthology with so many authors in it what I didn't like others are bound to and visca versca. At my second seder where the 'younger generation' is put in charge, we abandoned the traditional text and used some of the pieces from this book. Ellyn Maybe's Four Questions is delightful and Pam Ward's Passover Blues is a knockout. There are funny pieces, some unusually personal, questions of faith, and startling glimmers of freedom through a poets eye. It won't replace your grandfathers haggadah, but it's a good one to add to the collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Poet's Haggadah, April 7, 2011

By 

Norbert Hirschhorn "bertzpoet" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through The Eyes Of Poets (Paperback)

Of course, the Haggadah is not a holy scripture. That means it can -- and has over the centuries -- be revised, edited, added to, subtracted from. I used to think the 'real' Haggadah had a blue cover and advertised Maxwell House Coffee. What we think of as a traditional Haggadah is the one that even the Orthodox race through, leaving the children a bit bored and wild. That's why when growing up we never seemed to do the part after the meal, which is actually the lovelier part. Now comes the Haggadah following the standard outline but by original poetry. There are some real winners here: 'Also a Full Moon' by Helen Bar-Lev, which places the narrator celebrating Pesach in Spain, yet another land of sojourn and exile. The wonderful banter in the background of David Gershator's 'Seder' comes when Jews are anxious about opening the door to let in Elijah ('It seems so daring to open the door for nothing'). My father used to sip wine from Elijah's cup when I wasn't looking -- for a long time, this was my equivalent of Santa Claus, and as magical. And I admire the courage of Barbara Elovic's 'Dayenu' where instead of all the good things that happen to Jews, any one of which would be 'enough', she relates all the tsuris that afflict a family; if only one of those things had happened it would have been enough. "Enough already,' she writes. This is a cure for the sentimentality and shmaltziness that obscure the real world where we really didn't recline, eating like the aristocrats.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars IT'S A WHOLE NEW PASSOVER, March 12, 2009

By 

Salvatore Buttaci "Salvatore Buttaci, author ... (Princeton, WV) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through The Eyes Of Poets (Paperback)

"A Poet's Haggadah" is worthy of everyone's eyes and bookshelves.

A Catholic, I am not of the Jewish faith, but Jewish history and traditions are part of my religious heritage, so it's reassuring to read the poems of writers who celebrate the Seder meal of Passover, the rich history of the Jewish people, the love God demonstrated by delivering them to freedom after so many years of persecution.

Let me say how proud I am to have one of my poems,"Saying the Blessing Over Matzah," in this gem of an anthology. And let me also add that, like that bread commercial of years ago where the announcer said, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's Bread," let me paraphrase him by concluding with, "You don't have to be Jewish to love "A Poet's Haggadah," a poetry anthology I highly recommend!

Salvatore Buttaci
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