The Cathedral Is Burning by Betsy Orient Bernfeld

These rich and textured poems glide from topic to topic, connecting the historical with the personal, weaving them together with invisible thread. They explore the meanings of birds, of the color red, of fire, making startling connections in a disconnected world. We learn that to fertilize a flower hummingbirds “must plunge their entire heads into the red petals. . . diving deep into reality to its core the divine.” Bernfeld’s deep-diving attention creates a tapestry of desert meditations that become a prayer of awe and sorrow.

–Meg Files, author of Lit Blue Sky Falling

The Cathedral Is Burning, by Betsy Bernfeld, is a beautiful, thought-provoking collection of poems connecting wilderness, asylum-seekers, death, fire, women ~ and cathedrals. Mothers, Great grandmothers, Mother Earth, and the name Our Lady are portrayed in relation to these formidable structures with bells, and the power they have and can wield. Fear and sorrow pulse through many paths the poet leads us on, some with extensive historical backgrounds. In “Walk a Mile in my Shoes,” we truly feel the trepidation of an undocumented woman. “The Woman and the Coyote” compares domesticity and the wild, including this lyrical description: “the coyote / streaking past not low like a dog but high / and silent graceful as speeding light.” The book’s last poem ends with “the Algonquins bequeathing Thanksgiving / rewarded with bloodshed and betrayal, / the mercy door slamming, / opening and slamming.” Your heart will grow when you read this book.

–Carol L. Deering, author of Havoc & Solace: Poems from the Inland West.

“Bernfeld’s poetry burns with grief, transformation,” by Tibby Plasse, Nov. 3, 2021, Jackson Hole News & Guide.  See,

Review: https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/scene/book_review/bernfelds-poetry-burns-with-grief-transformation/article_56d0c942-d41f-5cf9-a51c-6cef0780fcb0.html

Review: https://westernwriters.org/round-up/dec22-reviews.pdf