Henry Israeli is the author of New Messiahs (Four Way Books, 2002), and the editor and translator of Fresco: Selected Poetry of Luljeta Lleshanaku (New Directions, 2002) and Child of Nature (New Directions, 2010). Henry Israeli is also the founder and editor of Saturnalia Books. He lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife and daughters.

Books by Henry Israeli:

Other poems on the web by Henry Israeli:
Three poems
"The Bicycle Ride"

About Praying to the Black Cat:

"Such lovely doubt in these poems. Doubt and wonderfully sudden flights into connection. These rescues are almost always simply human—a couple making love, a child drawing—as the edge here, the dread, is so humanly complex. This is simultaneously a raw and restrained book. Israeli doesn’t spew or explain but remains open to the need so consistently embodied in these poems. The title conveys his willingness to engage the symbols of ruin and treat them as a source of change. Praying to the Black Cat is a wonderful book."
—Bob Hicok

"In the possibility of nothing—splintered relationships, paternal fears, infidelity, the historical weight of oppression and violence, hauntings, madness and familial corrosion—Henry Israeli obtains the sacred. It’s the dance of flies on a bone licked clean-white. These poems blister with strange beauties. Impeccably crafted, they cradle a brilliantly wayward tenderness. Little mythologies, little fables—they often slip through confusions that only with Israeli’s deft handling of self-destruction can leave us on the precipice of hope. Praying to the Black Cat is a luminous book. It delivers us scathed and love-filled, graceful with our wounds."
—Alex Lemon