To Stretch a Heart and Other Poems

Irving Fink is full of surprises accomplishment after accomplishment. Here is a volume of seventy-seven of his poems a few going back some sixty years. They make a portrait of the private man the lover as a youth the lover advanced in his years. His concerns also take in family his Jewish heritage and consciousness of mortality; his language is sensitive and honest. What comes through the lyric passion most vividly is the strength of the man and his joy and gratitude in life itself. These poems touch and inspire. -Darryl Pinckney author of High Cotton Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award winner.