Figuring in the Figure [Paperback]

Poetry. In Ben Berman's second full- length collection, FIGURING IN THE FIGURE, poems laden with aphorisms, puns, and witticisms meditate on shapes, angles, thinking about thinking, marriage, and the joys and trials of bringing a daughter into the world, among others. Sometimes with a Frostian spirit, sometimes with a touch of Zen, the known is questioned and wisdom gleaned from daily experience. This is a book that challenges us to reimagine the familiar, both physical and spiritual, while reminding us not to wander through this world without wonder.

'Because design, alone, doesn't hold weight,' Ben Berman writes in his remarkable second collection of poems, 'we need concrete material-the image / of a bridge over the sound of water.' In FIGURING IN THE FIGURE, Berman explores the nature of form in its deepest most complex sense. His luminous details evoke a world of mutable forms and shapes that suggest the fragility of our lives. The book culminates with a moving, realistic yet lyrical sequence of poems about the birth of his daughter. This is a quietly beautiful book that deserves attention and recognition. —Jeff Friedman

FIGURING IN THE FIGURE is a self-portrait of a man becoming a father. Ben Berman writes inside a modified terza rima that makes a virtue out of clarity and discernment. The influence here of Frost returns us to Frost's virtues: these poems make points and have a point of view. Like Frost, Berman is unsparing in his introspection. He offers us an ongoing philosophy: when faced with the pain and contradiction of everyday life, 'to delay judgment and contemplate . . . incompatible thoughts.' —Rodger Kamenetz

Ben Berman's nimble terza rima is the perfect vehicle for the poems of FIGURING IN THE FIGURE. Both expansive and structured, the interwoven stanzas allow him to form and reform probing questions of identity without ever forsaking a deep musicality. We watch the speaker ponder mouse droppings, hló!