In poem after vivid poem, Rachel Heimowitz "gather[s] what is holy/into [her] palms," using words and "the light between words" to describe life in contemporary Israel fraught with danger and uncertainty as well as joy and vision. The precise music of these poems moves from somber moments of religious and historical reflection to the description of dramatic, even frightening, events in contemporary life, proving once again that political realities, faith, and personal, familial life are inescapably intertwined. These are, above all, accomplished and beautiful poems that will be read and reread for a very long time. 

"Holding", Rachel Heimowitz says, "is a woman's purpose", and by "holding" she means keeping, securing, preserving, remembering, carrying deep inside as in prayer, witnessing, and testifying truthfully, earnestly and urgently. It is a woman's purpose, this is true, and it is the poet's purpose, too. Sometimes it is a splendid accident when a gifted poet is thrown into places and times that demand the poet's heart and eye. In What the Light Reveals, Heimowitz shows herself to be precisely that poet, and the result is poetry of grace, exquisite wrenching, and stark honesty. 

Rachel Heimowitz's collection of poems, What the Light Reveals, is a remarkable debut. This brilliant, sobering, often harrowing yet always lyrical account of life in Israel is also a meditation on faith and family, both immediate family and the larger human family as well. As Rachel Heimowitz reckons her place as a woman in a time and place of war, we find ourselves, as readers, enveloped in one of the most intimate and dramatic sequences of poems in recent years. This is a book to cherish.