Howard Schwartz is well known not only in his native St. Louis, but worldwide as a leading American Jewish poet, essayist, novelist and editor, an expert on Jewish folklore and mythology. He recently co-edited, with Barbara Raznick, “Winter Harvest,” the latest in a series of anthologies of writings by local Jewish authors and poets.

With “Breathing in the Dark” (Mayapple Press $14.95), Schwartz returns, after a long hiatus, to one of his first loves in writing: original poetry. Schwartz is the author of three books of poems: “Vessels,” “Gathering the Sparks” and “Sleepwalking Beneath the Stars.” He is also the co-editor, with Anthony Rudolf of “Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets,” a still-definitive collection that includes Jewish poetry by such giants as Delmore Schwartz, Allen Ginsberg and Howard Nemerov, the St. Louis English professor who was Poet Laureate of the United States.

In “Breathing in the Dark,” Schwartz reflects a mature perspective on life, love, Jewishness, relations with Israel and with family members that combine strong poetic skills with a tender and perceptive sensibility. His poems also evoke the “magic realism” of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Italo Calvino, as well as the paintings of Marc Chagall and the music of the Jewish Mystical Tradition.

In “A Portrait of My Son,” Schwartz bravely takes on the mysterious aspects of a father-son relationship:

He has climbed high in the branches of almond trees
to shake them free of their fruit,
harvested holy weed,
braided challahs while it was still dark,
hawked warm loaves in the shuk,
worked on a dig by the Wall.
 
He is full of contradictions:
a sniper with a conscience,
an impatient student who loves to read,
a would-be chef, tour guide, translator.
When here, he longs to be there;
when there, he longs to be here.

He ignores the wisdom of the Fathers
and the wisdom of his father,
preferring the mystery of being
with no questions asked.

What he loves
is to feel the wind in his face,
and to bask in the warmth of the sun.

In the poem Schwartz expresses his unconditional love for his son Nati, who serves in the Israel Defense Forces, and accepts with wisdom that his son “ignores the wisdom of the Fathers/and the wisdom of his father.” Schwartz’s use of the “wind in his face” and his son’s desire to “bask in the warmth of the sun” cause the reader to share those exact sensual joys with an economy of words.

Schwartz also includes another powerful poem, “The Collector of Owls,” based on a dream his daughter Miriam shared with him:

In my daughter’s dream

I was a collector
of owls.

A large pile of dead owls
covered the floor of my study.

Owls lined the shelves,
and the walls were covered with pictures
of owls.
 
In the dream
I shone a flashlight
on one of the pictures.

There was an old tree with an owl in it.

That owl,
I explained,
is you.

That’s all she remembers.

Now she wants to know
what it means.

As was the case with the poem about his son, Schwartz demonstrates deep unconditional parental love and understanding. Owls can be seen as symbols of death and foreboding (especially “A large pile of dead owls.”) But owls are also associated with wisdom, which he senses in Miriam, his daughter who shares the name of the beloved sister of Moses. Instead of the frightening bird in his study, like the Raven in the poem of that title by Edgar Allan Poe, Schwartz shares with his daughter his belief that the wisdom traditionally associated with owls is why “That owl…is you.”} What better gift could a gifted writer bestow on a son or a daughter than to include poems to each in this remarkable collection?

(Note: Howard Schwartz will be among six local poets taking part in an Interfaith Poetry Reading at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 28 at The Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Road. Schwartz and another Jewish poet will be joined by two Christian and two Muslim poets, who will read poems that reflect their cultural and religious traditions. Rabbi James Stone Goodman’s band will perform. The event is free and open to the public.)