Cracks

The art of Kintsugi, using gold to fill cracks or mend shards in Japanese ceramics, suggests that when a thing has been damaged by time, it becomes more beautiful. So, too, for human experience, offers Jane Ellen Glasser. In her sixth poetry collection, the tone is one of gratitude; Glasser treats even serious subjects, such as late love and life’s end, with wit and a light hand. In her 70th year, Glasser does not bemoan aging, but, rather chooses to acknowledge, even celebrate the inevitable accidents of experience that grow a life. In the closing poem, she offers guidance to her future eulogist. Just as the Japanese cracked pot is imperfectly perfect, she tells us how she wants to be remembered: “Say I was perfectly flawed. / Say I was human.”