Facing the Music

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Music is used in this book of poetry as more than subject matter but as a metaphor for the examined life. In the collection, a man’s transformations are measured by the concerts he has witnessed, the depth of a woman’s life is revealed by an unfinished painting her son a­ttempts to complete, and a composer is gauged by his silences. With a compression rare in contemporary poetry and a leavening wit, the author draws the reader toward a subject’s interior through its beguiling surface and springs secrets from uninspected common places.

REVIEW

“In his first collection of poems, Bruce Berger faces the music with keen ears and sharp eyes. Insightful and resonant, these poems vibrate with feeling and understanding not only of music but of life, love, and the pursuit of meaning. The voice rings true, the cadences and rhymes are nuanced and subtle, the subjects are at once unique and universal. Facing the Music is filled with poems that speak to the head and to the heart. They leave a lasting resonance.”
—Eugenia Zukerman, flutist