A Shot in the Dark: Poems of Love, Separation, and Reunion

A Shot in the Dark by Errol Rubenstein is a meditation on family and relationships and the struggles and triumphs that go hand in hand with being in a relationship and having a family. It references parents and children, their relationships, and the complex emotions that arise from these family dynamics. This collection also addresses love--romantic love and love of family, and also contains musings on the author's impressions of the natural world, as well as the author's childhood memories, the artistic process, and reflections on what the author observes in the world around him. A Shot in the Dark offers one writer's views of the world he has been handed, and how he has learned to navigate that world, and find the joy and light that sustains us all.

A Shot in the Dark is a work of consciousness and conscience. Powerful poems of love, separation and eventual reunion chart a difficult journey toward a mature relationship that admits freely of "questions without answers." Arresting imagery threads through these poems, a "visible music" at home in the nighttime ambiance Rubenstein evokes, ravishing "with its gabled house of stars."

-Thomas R. Smith, author of Medicine Year and Storm Island

A Shot in the Dark is an atmospheric collection that wrestles with existential questions, turning over alienation, estrangement, and terror in order to uncover what is, ultimately, sufficient. Rubenstein's poems offer a keen awareness of time and how much of it remains, as well as an exploration of how it might be best spent. Through beautiful pockets of imagery and lyricism, these poems attest to the power of art and the fierce joy that holds humans together. A Shot in the Dark fights through mistakes, angst, and regret to hold the door open for redemption.

-Claire Wahmanholm, author of Meltwater