CAROL HALBERSTADT
Photo by Ellen Foust
Carol Snyder Halberstadt’s poems are deeply rooted in nature, tradition, and the grace that unites us all. In Gathering Words, the words she speaks are simple and quietly powerful. In particular, the poems that express her experiences of illness, medical treatment, and healing speak directly to human resilience and the power of hope.
—Jack Coulehan, MD, author of The Wound Dresser
Carol is a poet born to gather wisdom by carefully observing the dimensions of change among every kind of living creature and within creation itself. In trees and clouds, animals and insects, plants and grasses—listening to the beings who enact life’s endless transformations, we discover more of ourselves. Ancient sounds can still be heard in early Hebrew texts, in the sacred words of America’s tribal elders, in the music of deep redemption and praise. This larger world holds a galaxy of pathways where one can regain the elemental powers of reciprocity, resilience, transmutability, learning how to protect what is at risk, how to thrive, and how to endure. As the poet discovers, “the Earth knows nothing of the borders that do not exist.” Life can be discovered everywhere, its often miraculous changes seeming, at times, without end.
—Charlene Breedlove, MA, editor of the JAMA Poetry and Medicine section, 1998–2019
Carol Snyder Halberstadt’s poetry holds reciprocating worldviews in dynamic equilibrium: the sacred and intimate connections that animate all beings—living, seemingly nonliving, and dead—while letting stand the quiet resolve to prevail in the face of Eternity’s splendid indifference. At once lyrical, ethereal, and plain spoken, to my mind she is the unacknowledged poet-child of Loren Eiseley and Pablo Neruda. —Barry L. Farkas, MD, MPH