In the Middle of Things, Begin
by Eileen Brilliant

“What a pleasure to read Eileen Brilliant’s wondrous poems; some, clear-eyed riddles from ‘the anarchy of dreams,’ others helpless to hide the secret self from herself, or from us, her fortunate readers. She wishes to leave her mark, wishes to be faithful, while admitting ‘to be human is to be faithless.’ This kind of honesty about love, longing and being human, persists throughout the book. In The Middle Of Things, Begin is a treasure.”

—Frances Richey, author of The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War and The Burning Point

“In the Middle of Things, Begin is written from a place where faith is the evidence of things not seen. The poet's mission here is to build the visionary bridge between the unheard and the unsaid, from where the paper it is written on has ears to where the birds are singing by magic.”

—Andrew Kaufman, author of Earth’s Ends, The Complete Cinnamon Bay Sonnets, and Both Sides of the Niger

“When you read a poem by this author the sense of a genuine artist is evident.”

—Joshua Meander, Publisher of Nomad's Choir Poetry Journal

“As Eileen Brilliant transcribes the arc of her life through memories of family and her evolving self, her courageous suite of poems penetrates into the nature of love, in all its guises. ‘Because paper is an ear,’ as she writes, it is through words on the page that we join her as she dives into ‘those/absent places where a heart should be home.’ Ultimately, triumphantly, she arrives at that place where memory has space to fade into the ‘calm of new connection’ – home, at last, in ‘the living poem’ that truly and surely embraces love – which permits us, generously, in her company, to ‘continue on.’”

—Bo Niles, author of intimate geographies, natural causes and crescendo /decrescendo

“With rare honesty and courage, Eileen Brilliant allows us into her being and presents us with interwoven layers of complexity and nuance. Her poems are so rich that each reading is like opening a gift generously filled with insight and beauty.”

—Jackie Raven

Read an excerpt from In the Middle of Things, Begin