Many Moons Rising by Elizabeth A. Bernstein, Kindred Spirit Press, 2002, St. John, Kansas, pp. 48

        Elizabeth A. Bernstein’s most recent chapbook entitled Many Moons Rising contains poems whose power lies both in the justness and aptness of images. Bernstein is a very conscious artist, and her sincere care for the sound and melody of words is evident: “Oh hear! Oh hear1 \ the distant thunder coming closer” (“From Half A World Away”, September, 2001). And the same music is heard in her poetic device of repeating the word ‘flowing’ thrice in the poem “Continuum” dealing with Trafficking in Human beings around the Globe:

An ancient scourge has risen,

A river of vice

Flowing flowing flowing

The title poem “Many Moons Rising” has unusual freshness and vigour. The poet has recognized the splendid greatness of the moon as in the following lines Bernstein shows her keen eye for the mystery:

The moon knows where words go

As they desert the poet,

Where light goes

As it flies from a dying star.

(Many Moons  Rising, p 4 )

“ How Words Find The Page” is a very intense poem revealing the critical intelligence of Bernstein discovering the poetic process: “ The Muse steals \ from behind, \ Crawls \ up an awry spine, \ Glances \ over a shoulder…Ignites \ a flash of insight \ That compels \ the stilling of time.” In the preceding poem “Language, That Continuous Meadow” Bernstein’s unpretending Muse is discovering the reach of words: “The word leaps \ from mouths of prophets, \ writhes from deathbed lips”. The poet is haunted by pre-historic ‘sound nurtured in ancient skills’. Bernstein achieves a high degree of excellence by some of her simplest lines. Many Moons Rising reveals due equilibrium of thought and form. Her work is full of deep comments on the ‘high moment’ created when she explores the mysterious depths of human soul.