A Brief and Endless Sea

Born out of the early days of the pandemic, Barbara Pelman’ s A Brief and Endless Sea explores the concept of ‘ gaps’ : those moments of nothingness that are paradoxically full of potential. Many of the poems are rooted in Jewish tradition: the Angel Purah who cuts the ties between soul and body; the prophet Isaiah’ s words of comfort; the concept of “ Tsimtsum,” a withdrawal in order to create space for something new. The poems reach toward a potential built from seeming emptiness; Pelman mines the depths, taking us to difficult places— the dissolution of a marriage, caring for a parent with dementia. But she doesn’ t leave us there, waiting. Using the power of words to map a route out, A Brief and Endless Sea pulls us toward life in all of its vibrant details— the simple beauty of a small garden, the pleasures of teaching, long walks with a grandson, and encounters with spirituality. For Pelman, there is comfort in the “ smallest life you can love.” Like the glosa form she turns to often, something small transforms into something larger, expansive. In A Brief and Endless Sea, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and waiting in itself presents fertile ground for hope and possibility.