The Concealment of Endless Light
poems by Yehoshua November
 
Orison Books
paper  /  88 pp.  /  $18.00
ISBN:  978-1-949039-50-4
Distributed to the trade by Itasca Books
952-223-8373  /  orders@itascabooks.com
Publication Date: September 3, 2024
 
ABOUT THE BOOK
 
The third poetry collection from Yehoshua November, whose previous books have been finalists for The National Jewish Book Award, The Paterson Poetry Prize, and The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, extends the marriage of mysticism and everyday life that has become November's signature and particular strength as a poet. As Ilya Kaminsky puts it, "In the same breath, he describes a soul's journey and eating breakfast with his children." Whether considering the trajectory of his marriage, the Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting, the paradoxes of mystical Chassidic teachings, or an email from his grandfather when the poet was 18, November's poems never fail to penetrate beyond the surface to the mystery underlying the full spectrum of human experience.
 
PRAISE
 
"In November's deft hand, the small details of living become the spines of poems on being."
—The Jerusalem Post
 
"The Concealment of Endless Light is a beautiful and moving exploration of the wavering between hope and hopelessness in our lives. The collection’s poems examine how the profound and the mundane—the light and the sometimes seeming lack of light—are indelibly connected, and ultimately they work toward deconstructing these fragile and flawed dichotomies."
—Vivian Wagner, The Pedestal Magazine

"[Yehoshua November] writes with rare ease, honesty, humility and beauty about the Divine as well as the mundane; worlds come together in his writing. [...] This collection of spiritual poetry is one that even secularists and skeptics will find engaging and powerful."
—Sandee Brawarsky, Hadassah Magazine

"Novem­ber speaks for those who know the ten­der­ness and frailty of the world and the dreams and con­cerns of being human. Ulti­mate­ly, his poems expose what is con­cealed, and let it rev­el in the light."
—Julie R. Enszer, Jewish Book Council
 
"Elegantly crafted, beautifully philosophical, and passionately devoted to exploring the profundity of earthly life, The Concealment of Endless Light chronicles a quest for the divine amid the ordinary. Never holier-than-thou, the speaker in November’s poems is always conscious of the ways he’s failed his family, himself, and his God. Nonetheless, he persists in reaching out to the divine to illuminate the experiences of a soul in a body."
—Maria Mazziotti Gillan
 
"How does Yehoshua November do it? How does he balance the lofty and mundane with such grace? This remarkable poet finds mystery in kitchens and hardware stores, dry cleaners and classrooms. In the same breath, he describes a soul's journey and eating breakfast with his children. [...] November is one of our most brilliant Jewish American poets of this moment."
—Ilya Kaminsky
 
"A wonderful poet with a unique vision and distinct voice, Yehoshua November opens worlds within worlds. [...] In a moving poem about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, November gathers the dead around him on a street where the 'Jews of Pittsburgh / stand in the rain / holding candles' while 'eleven souls ascend to the region of mystery / then swoop down to hover, incandescently, over their former lives,' consecrating a place where 'no one can explain how [the body] limps forward / but has not faltered.' Neither does this poet falter, but moves forward with dignity and grace."
—Dorianne Laux
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 
Yehoshua November is the author of God's Optimism, a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Two Worlds Exist, a finalist for The National Jewish Book Award and The Paterson Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review, and on NPR and Poetry Unbound. November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro University.
 
SAMPLE POEM
 
Notes on the Soul
 
1.
 
Like one descending 
the stairs to the supply room
for a paperclip 
but pausing 
beneath the door frame,
a soul enters 
a particular body 
and cannot
remember why.
 
2.
 
If there is no such thing as a soul—
my blue-haired student,
who said she’d never have a child,
wrote in her notebook—
then how does my mother know,
from hundreds of miles away,
when I am sad?
 
3. 
 
Part of the soul 
resides inside 
the body,
which resides inside 
the world— 
the way the memory 
of a kiss
circles in the mind 
of a prisoner 
walking laps 
around the prison courtyard.