The Breath before Birds Fly

Interweaving the themes of longing and family, M. E. Silverman constructs beauty in the language of each line. He focuses on the important matters of life, combing his Jewish background and upbringing. But these poems are not just for Jews. It is much more universal. Through reoccurring imagery of water and earth/mud, one gets easily swept away with mud angels, a modern day Noah shopping at Lowes, the last mermaid, hurricanes, a victim of abuse, a dybbuk mud man, a modern day Baba-Yaga, and more. We discover a part of ourselves in each and recognize the longing of those who "stand savage with all one has." Silverman has such rich subject matter. He sees Jerusalem "ghosting with holiness." He watches "while the soapy, silent moon / gives what slender, tired light / it can." In Russia, an old woman sees "tress are silent / with frost, / bitter like iron chains." At the Holocaust Memorial Museum, a "miracle" occurs as "the stacked shoes begin to rise / leisurely, like puppets on strings / [and] silently sweep through the air like Astaire and Rogers". This is more than a chapbook; it is a dance with language.