"Under One Roof: Poems" by Eric Pfeiffer
Publisher's Description:
Under One Roof: Poems, by Eric Pfeiffer
Insightful, lyric poetry, touching on many aspects of the human experience. A real treasure. To purchase a copy of "Under One Roof" go to http://www.amazon.com/Under-One-Roof-Eric-Pfeiffer/dp/0557633982 For a signed copy of the book e-mail us at epfeiffe@health.usf.edu
Under One Roof: Poems, by Eric Pfeiffer
Insightful, lyric poetry, touching on many aspects of the human experience. A real treasure. To purchase a copy of "Under One Roof" go to http://www.amazon.com/Under-One-Roof-Eric-Pfeiffer/dp/0557633982 For a signed copy of the book e-mail us at epfeiffe@health.usf.edu
Reviews:
Thoughtful and important poems, September 13, 2010
Under One Roof, a collection of thoughtful poems by physician-poet Eric Pfeiffer, represents personal observations and experiences during his lifetime. PfeLiffer's skillful use of language, concise phrasing, and extraordinary sensitivity demonstrate a keen awareness of details and sounds that portrays a thoroughly examined life.
His reflections focus on a cat, oranges on a blue plate, an easy trotting bear ("clumsy, pleasure-seeking beast"), but also, most poignantly, on parents, forgetting and remembering. The ordinary becomes complex and compelling. Those that suggest medical and relationship complexities associated with the human journey are presented with emotional neutrality. Readers' minds are ensnared. Lois L. Nixon, PhD.
A Life Lived in Poetry, August 8, 2010
By
George Wolff, PhD.
Here is a beautiful book of poems, ones that draw together under one roof the experiences of a lifetime. The first of the four sections offers poems of a young man, poems about being young and learning to adjust to a not-always-friendly world, but in each poem the speaker's undeniable strength lies just beneath the surface. Then comes a section of poems about love, poems that once again show strength but this time the strength to meet "the shortfalls of love." Many of these are finely observed, captured like sketches in a clean, concise style. The third of the four thematic groups, "Naming the Colors," is to my mind the strongest group and may perhaps be described as poems written from a place of achievement. The poet is still actively engaged but no longer struggles with the difficulties of adjustment or the cross-currents of love. The poems in the closing group are more detached, more literary, less personal than those of the preceding three groups. The opening line of the first poem in this section captures the unifying theme--"Forgetting, remembering." In each of the four groups as in the book as a whole, there is wonderful variety in unity. An old mentor was right when he said to the young doctor, "You have the gift,/you are a poet."
Sample Poems:
Waiting
I’ve waited for the moon
to come closer, to be
cradled in my arms.
I’ve waited for the rain
in a dry summer, the kingfisher
to return in the fall.
I’ve waited months and years
for orchids to burst
into bloom.
I’ve waited for long flights
to be over, and for my patients’
last breath.
Often I’ve waited
for you to come
into my room.
Everybody waits.
Endings Are Beginnings
Today I saw my final patient.
Fifty years ago I saw my first.
What did I feel? Triumph?
Sadness? Emptiness?
Only this:
One door closes,
one door opens.
Endings are beginnings.
I begin again:
A whole generation left to live,
failure ruled out by definition,
all possibilities are open,
nothing more to prove.
I get in my car and drive home.
Rain is starting to fall.
Today I saw my final patient.
My dog welcomes me just the same.
Questions
I never want to be
a part of nothing. I want to be
a force to be reckoned with,
a yellow strand of hair.
It is not enough
to be well known,
listed in Who’s Who, or in
Who Gives a Damn.
Instead,
these are the questions:
Do you still love me?
When will you be home?
Before All Time Expires
At sixty-six I am no longer
daring, dashing, in command.
I’m shorter now in stature,
short on time. Old age
beckons like the sea:
Come in, come in!
But I say No,
I am not finished.
I still want to journey
to the center of the earth,
and to the center of your heart.
I want to atone
shortfalls of love
that marred my way,
to practice love like a religion,
worshiping you and you and you.
But most of all I want to burn
brightly in the fire of now,
with mind clear as a bell,
with laughter and desire,
before all time expires.
Thoughtful and important poems, September 13, 2010
Under One Roof, a collection of thoughtful poems by physician-poet Eric Pfeiffer, represents personal observations and experiences during his lifetime. PfeLiffer's skillful use of language, concise phrasing, and extraordinary sensitivity demonstrate a keen awareness of details and sounds that portrays a thoroughly examined life.
His reflections focus on a cat, oranges on a blue plate, an easy trotting bear ("clumsy, pleasure-seeking beast"), but also, most poignantly, on parents, forgetting and remembering. The ordinary becomes complex and compelling. Those that suggest medical and relationship complexities associated with the human journey are presented with emotional neutrality. Readers' minds are ensnared. Lois L. Nixon, PhD.
A Life Lived in Poetry, August 8, 2010
By
George Wolff, PhD.
Here is a beautiful book of poems, ones that draw together under one roof the experiences of a lifetime. The first of the four sections offers poems of a young man, poems about being young and learning to adjust to a not-always-friendly world, but in each poem the speaker's undeniable strength lies just beneath the surface. Then comes a section of poems about love, poems that once again show strength but this time the strength to meet "the shortfalls of love." Many of these are finely observed, captured like sketches in a clean, concise style. The third of the four thematic groups, "Naming the Colors," is to my mind the strongest group and may perhaps be described as poems written from a place of achievement. The poet is still actively engaged but no longer struggles with the difficulties of adjustment or the cross-currents of love. The poems in the closing group are more detached, more literary, less personal than those of the preceding three groups. The opening line of the first poem in this section captures the unifying theme--"Forgetting, remembering." In each of the four groups as in the book as a whole, there is wonderful variety in unity. An old mentor was right when he said to the young doctor, "You have the gift,/you are a poet."
Sample Poems:
Waiting
I’ve waited for the moon
to come closer, to be
cradled in my arms.
I’ve waited for the rain
in a dry summer, the kingfisher
to return in the fall.
I’ve waited months and years
for orchids to burst
into bloom.
I’ve waited for long flights
to be over, and for my patients’
last breath.
Often I’ve waited
for you to come
into my room.
Everybody waits.
Endings Are Beginnings
Today I saw my final patient.
Fifty years ago I saw my first.
What did I feel? Triumph?
Sadness? Emptiness?
Only this:
One door closes,
one door opens.
Endings are beginnings.
I begin again:
A whole generation left to live,
failure ruled out by definition,
all possibilities are open,
nothing more to prove.
I get in my car and drive home.
Rain is starting to fall.
Today I saw my final patient.
My dog welcomes me just the same.
Questions
I never want to be
a part of nothing. I want to be
a force to be reckoned with,
a yellow strand of hair.
It is not enough
to be well known,
listed in Who’s Who, or in
Who Gives a Damn.
Instead,
these are the questions:
Do you still love me?
When will you be home?
Before All Time Expires
At sixty-six I am no longer
daring, dashing, in command.
I’m shorter now in stature,
short on time. Old age
beckons like the sea:
Come in, come in!
But I say No,
I am not finished.
I still want to journey
to the center of the earth,
and to the center of your heart.
I want to atone
shortfalls of love
that marred my way,
to practice love like a religion,
worshiping you and you and you.
But most of all I want to burn
brightly in the fire of now,
with mind clear as a bell,
with laughter and desire,
before all time expires.
