{"id":166,"date":"2021-09-23T19:44:45","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T19:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/?page_id=166"},"modified":"2022-04-10T21:44:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T21:44:57","slug":"a-criticism-of-life","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Brought Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Characterized by the admission of doubt in God\u2019s desire for a better world, and willing to see Jewish tradition as indispensable, Brought Down<\/em> struggles with daily life as a firm believer and continuing pride in Jewish identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the great Jewish tradition of holding God to account, and not relenting in anger towards Him, the themes in this book are universal: faith, religious practice, forgiveness, history, and the relevance of belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This was a real treat, walking so lightly along the line where the sacred and the profane meet with intelligence, imagination, and lots of charm. I kept being reminded of Ecclesiastes.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Alicia Ostriker, author of Once More Out of Darkness and Other Poems<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m familiar with many of the things Constam’s poems plangently evoke. . . . Some of the poems remind me, in the best way, of poems by Yehuda Amichai and Nelly Sachs. . . . From time to time, I also was reminded of some of the later poems of R. S. Thomas.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Kevin John Hart, Anglo-Australian theologian, philosopher, and poet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I just love these poems! They are such a wonderful deep dive that pulls me into each experience so evocatively. Overall, what comes through is the wrestling–wrestling with God, with being faithful or not, with being secular yet pulled\/tied\/anchored to this tradition. . . . It resonated with my understanding of the biblical meaning of ‘Israel’ as ‘he who wrestles with God.'”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Leonard Freeman, author of Ashes and the Phoenix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I enjoyed most the combination of a hard, no-nonsense style . . . with restrained lyrical and philosophical flights, passages of insight that are fully poetic and dramatized.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–A. F. Moritz, University of Toronto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In Brought Down, Constam appears as . . . a Seinfeld-mode Job, questioning God about his ‘masquerading as the dark.’ God is ‘arbitrary’ and we are fickle; or he is fickle and our intermittent obedience to indecipherably contradictory dicta becomes the real story of each obituary. . . . I thank Simon ‘Agonistes’ Constam . . . for giving us a newfangled Ecclesiastes. Brought Down delivers the goods!”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–George Elliott Clarke, Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, 2016-17<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\r\n \r\n #teach #teachersofinstagram #teacher #teachyourchi<\/span>\r\n \t \"#teach\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>
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\r\n \r\n #leaving #leavetaking #loveslessons #lovememes #lo<\/span>\r\n \t \"#leaving\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>
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\r\n \r\n #dance #danceoflove #danceoflove\u2764 #danceforlove <\/span>\r\n \t \"#dance\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div> <\/div>\r\n\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\t\r\n \r\n \n\t <\/path>\n\t <\/svg> Follow on Instagram<\/span>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n\t\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t \n\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Characterized by the admission of doubt in God\u2019s desire for a better world, and willing to see Jewish tradition as indispensable, Brought Down struggles with daily life as a firm believer and continuing pride in Jewish identity. In the great Jewish tradition of holding God to account, and not relenting in anger towards Him, the themes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonconstam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}