Melting: Poems of a Frozen Man

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

Regina-born Jerry Steinberg has been a rabbi, university lecturer,
prison chaplain, choreographer, and consultant to the federal government
in yoga, meditation, and altered states of consciousness; currently he
has a psychotherapy practice in Toronto.

Steinberg’s diverse life experience is celebrated in this volume.
Section 1 (“Woman-Floe”) is a vividly erotic examination of
heterosexual love. Section 2 (“Self-Floe”), though not abandoning
the lyrical eroticism of the previous section, searches for answers in a
more intellectual, personal, and introspective way. Section 3
(“Root-Floe”) begins a more impersonal search that involves a more
varied relationship structure, which is carried over into section 4
(“Life-Floe”). Section 5 (“Soul-Floe”) consists of what the poet
calls “Primary-Process-Poetry,” in which the mind is set in neutral,
and words, rhythms, feelings, and intuitions freely interact with one
another.

Seen as a whole, Melting is an account of emotional thawing in which
the poet shares with the reader his struggles, anguishes, and joys. It
is this desire to share everything that gives Steinberg’s poetry its
immediacy and emotional power. Through its frankness, lyricism, and
insights, we come to understand the influences that have shaped the
poet’s soul.