Falling Apart Into WholenessCollected Poems 2005-2020

• Overview
• List of Poems
• Readings by Stephen Macht
• Featured Poems:
  We Are Passing
  Wholeness
• Endorsements
• How to order

© 2020 by Ira Chaleff, All rights reserved
Publisher: Ira Chaleff Publications
Language: English
Pages: 118
Formats: Paperback

Overview

This is my fourth collection of poetry . It’s beign published in my 75th year, and in the first year of the Coronavid-19 virus. I am entering an age of disintegration. As my body experiences the slow unraveling of aging, the society in which I wrote the poems in this volume is also unraveling. Yet, it is also an age of integration. How is this possible? Others have explored this phenomenon in prose. I choose to explore it through poetry. I invite you to join me in this exploration and may a better wholeness emerge from the rearrenged pieces of a post-Corona world.

List of Poems

These poems were written in a zig zag of years between my sixtieth and seventy fifth birthdays. I have organized them in categories that loosely form a progression toward the fullness of consciously accepted death, which invigorates life before letting it go. These are not all the poems written in these years, but the ones curated to comprise a transitional journey. Most of the poems have not previously appeared in anthology, though less than a handful were included in the chapbook, A Rare Love, published five years ago as a gift to dear friends, while one tended to the dying of the beloved other.

Readings by Stephen Macht

My friend, the esteemed actor and an ordained life cycle celebrant, Stephen Macht, does me the great honor of reading a few of the poems. His sonorous voice lifts each poem from the page and offers it to your soul. Thank you Stephen.

Featured Poems

We Are Passing

In this season of life, memorial services are more frequent. My friend Janis Gillham Grady organized a celebration of life for her father Peter Gillham and for her sister Terri’s loving husband Fernando Gamboa, in Southern California. Janis selected one of my poems and beautifully set it against pictures meaningful to their family (click on images to enlarge).

Wholeness

Endorsements

These Poems Touched My Heart and My Soul / This collection of poems is absolutely wonderful. Each one spoke to me in a very personal, deep and meaningful way. A perfect gift for one’s self especially during these challenging times. Uplifting and beautiful.

5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0Torrey Pines
@amazon.com, U.S – October 23, 2020

ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH, SAVORING EACH POEM AND NOT WANTING TO GET TO THE END OF THE BOOK ANYTIME SOON! / This collection of poetry by Ira Chaleff is simply wonderful. It speaks to all of us – about life, about time, about love, about aging, about cherishing those we love – including ourselves. Ira Chaleff’s poetry is intimate and, at the same time, universal. HIs language is so visual, so stirring. It’s not often one comes across a book of poetry that is as stirring, as moving, as enlightening, as these poems are. I just bought another and am excited to present it to another poet to see how she responds. I know it’ll move her as it did me.

5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0Stephen Macht
@amazon.com, U.S – November 15, 2020

Wonderful poetry / This is a great gift for the thoughtful and persistently optimistic, even in troubled times. Great study of the intersection of global upheaval and personal vulnerability, and how we keep going and learning all along in this journey of life Sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, always sincere and carefully chosen words.

5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0Eric
@amazon.com, U.S – December 10, 2020

Delightful! / This is a delightful collection of poetry. I find the poems on Love and Being soothing like a nice cup of herbal tea or a soft spring rain. Many other poems in this collection inspire me–to cultivate grace in my journey through aging–and to live life large with the fear of death.

5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0Elaine Shea
@amazon.com, U.S – April 2, 2021

How to Order

Softcover