Florence Weinberger

Ghost Tattoo Florence Weinberger

Poetry. There is great wit and a sly, honed gravitas in these poems. Florence Weinberger wrestles the ineluctable irony at work in every aspect of our lives, and wins; each poem provides a practical wisdom, and her range is amazing, from Opera, philosophy, and cosmology to family memoir, movie stars, and knuckle cracking. It takes deep experience, great human insight, and a unique intelligence to make poems this fresh, compelling, and yet accessible at street level. On top of all of this, Weinberger's craft is exceptional and delightful, and helps us understand the small and large conundrums of living. This is work of the first order. I love every poem in here--the deep humanity of it all, the keen sense of irony, yet the luminous ability to cherish so much.--Christopher Buckley

With her stunning fifth collection of poetry, GHOST TATTOO, Florence Weinberger will now be known not only as 'a longtime pillar' of Los Angeles poetry but as its newly appointed oracle as well. These illuminating and breathtaking poems reveal those sometimes visible and at time invisible markings left by experience--on our souls, our imaginations and even our bodies. Whether writing the poems of a family album (including a superb cycle of elegies for her mother) or considering the relationship of art to the individual reality/sensibility of a painter or a poet...or when reflecting upon the loss of a beloved and the subsequent electricity of late love, Florence Weinberger always surprises us by taking the unexpected poetic path. This is a book that belongs at your bedside, for those moments the night grows far too long and far too lonely.--David St. John

Florence Weinberger's GHOST TATTOO is a wondrous collection! It is the story of one person accepting and explaining the changing exigencies of life's variation, a life understood through the arts: movies, paintings, music, a grandson's ceramic, and of course poetry. Even so, it is a life that art usually falls short to inform properly, 'leaving gaps the size of history.' Weinberger generously invites us into this wisdom, and here and there, a line of poetry as urgent and insightful and stunning as any being written.--David Oliveira