Finding Words

Finding Words explores the subtle beauty and stark challenges of family, the complexities of adult friendships, the struggle to center a life on what is meaningful and nourishing, and the holiness to be found in ordinary moments.

Moving and accessible, Finding Words is a great gift for friends and family. In addition to being one of those cherished "night table books," it is ideal as a book club selection and also provides thoughtful content for a unique and powerful adult education program. 

Acclaimed poet and award-winning playwright, Feld is author of the beloved memoir, A Spiritual Life (SUNY Press, revised 2007); her poetry has been featured in numerous anthologies and in several new groundbreaking prayer books. As educator and scholar-in-residence, she has helped clergy and communities across North America use poetry as a powerful means of spiritual expression and has pioneered the field of writing as a spiritual practice.

Praise for Merle Feld and Finding Words:

“Merle Feld's Finding Words is a book of memory and desire, neediness and hopefulness, elegies for loved ones lost, celebration of moments of joy and love, scrupulous self-examination. I am gripped by Feld's honesty, and by her precise nailing of ‘the little obsessions that sink their teeth in / and mercilessly shake us, impervious / to our whimpering and begging Let me go.' These poems didn't let me go, either-they held me captive like the stories of my own life.”    -Alicia Ostriker, author of For the Love of God and The Book of Seventy

“You read Merle Feld's poems and wonder: Has this woman been alive for a thousand years? How can she know so much, contain so much? How can she continuously pierce my soul with these words she has found?”    -Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of Kabbalah: A Love Story and I'm God; You're Not

“These poems pour from the heart…. With wisdom and grace, Merle Feld reports about life from the edges of her senses and intelligence.”   -Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent and Day After Night

“Merle Feld's Finding Words is really a book about finding people. Her poems are filled with evidence of a caring heart, a great sensitivity to the nuances of personal connections…. This is poetry to be savored, not just read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.”  -Rabbi Arthur Green, author of Radical Judaism and Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow