Encounter TALISMAN: it is not enough to say Rachel Blum’s voice is unique; you will encounter in this collection a startlingly original poetry, sculpted on the page and astonishing to the ear. This poetry is indeed “intended beautifully” and elegantly executed. Pain and loss live here, as do breath and time. Here is a “new, strange, and graceful alphabet,” singing of language and the word made flesh. Here we encounter Adam and Eve and their God, Albert Einstein, Wilhelm Reich, and Rinpoche, Vermeer, and O’Keeffe. Here there is the music of sidereal orbits and heavy planets. Emeralds, opals, and softer diamonds glisten as these jewels mark maps of mother love. Here we open the nautilus and spiral through a vivid and immediate life. And here there is a delicate Judaism offering the sabbath prayers and the canopy of weddings. Experience in TALISMAN a beautiful karma and the promise of a poetic charm; encounter TALISMAN and encounter beauty and transformation.

Larissa Shmailo, Author of Dora / Lora

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Rachel Blum’s first book of poems, The Doctor of Flowers, is nothing less than beautiful and profound. Her work is at once full of pain and the elements of its relief. Blum refuses to look away from pain—indeed she travels with it, taking turns following its lead and leading it to a better end herself. Reading her work involves a deep trust between poet and reader, and it’s worth every line of that emotional connection. Her poetic world makes grief into an atmosphere of surprising livability—circulating, moveable, and spirit-filled.

Eric Wertheimer, Author of Regulus and Mylar