Rabbis of the Air [Paperback]

Philip Terman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2007

In Philip Terman's third major collection, he writes of his Jewish ancestry and his current home in rural Pennsylvania, combining a fine lyric sensibility with an awareness of history and mystical tradition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Personal experience acquires the monumentality of mythology.... Here is a resolution that shifts between history and modernity, between old and new conceptions of Judaism, binding the generations. --Jehanne Dubrow, Prairie Schooner

Terman is a fine cantor of the natural world.... These are wise worthwhile poems. --Peter Makuck, The Laurel Review

Terman manages to combine the melancholy and the sensuous in these poems, to grieve and to celebrate, and to augment his old-world faith with gentle paganism. --Leslie Ullman, Poetry

About the Author

Philip Terman's previous poetry collections include Book of the Unbroken Days and The House of Sages. He lives in Grove City, Pennsylvania with his wife Chris and their two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Autumn House Press (June 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932870156
• ISBN-13: 978-1932870152
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,885,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Terman is the author of five books of poetry: What Survives (Sow's Ear Press, 1993), The House of Sages (Mammoth Press, 1998),Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press, 2005) Book of the Unbroken Days (Mammoth Press, 2005), and Rabbis of the Air (Autumn House Press, 2007). His poems have appeared in several publications, including Poetry Magazine, The Georgia Review, The Forward, and The Sun Magazine. He has received the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience. He co-directs the Chautauqua Writers' Festival, is a Contributing Editor for the journal Chautauqua, and is a Professor of English at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Domestically enchanting, December 11, 2008

By 

Carolyne Whelan "Carolyne" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rabbis of the Air (Paperback)

I was a bit resistant to Phil Terman's Rabbis of the Air, being an atheist and generally wanting little to do with religion in the broad sense of the term. This book isn't just about Judaism, though. It is a wonderful collection of musings and reflections on personal history, family, and mythology, presented in deeply meaningful and careful ways. The landscape of many of these poems is Amish Country, Pennsylvania, which poses an interesting relationship with the tangible surroundings of garden and field, and the more personal ones of spirituality, love, and community. These are wise, thoughtful poems that do not waste a word.