Loose Magic

How to chronicle a lifetime? If it can be done at all, it must be in poems like this, written straight from the heart and spanning a decade, plainspoken, and lyrical with authentic and earned emotion. Here, the author's life is written in life-affirming odes like "Dancing with the Stars" and in aching elegies like "Cue the Bagpipes," often with a rapier wit ("Bifocals"). Powerful feelings and memories from a long life, richly lived.

-Rebecca Foust, 2017-19 Marin County Poet Laureate



Les Bernstein's poetry is poignant, sacred, stinging in its truthfulness while somehow still comforting. She touches deep roots of feeling.

-Lilly Tartikoff Karatz, Philanthropist and Co-founder of Revlon UCLA Women's

Cancer Research Program



When I immersed myself in Loose Magic, assimilating these poems one after another, an inner alchemy began. Soon, seemingly unbidden, a deep voice arose from within and said."Oh... this is about Me." Sit down, Loose Magic is precious food for the soul.

-Raz Ingrasci, Chairman Hoffman Institue International



In Loose Magic, Les Bernstein has masterfully woven a moving tapestry of sublime language and visual imagery rooted in the ordinary, everyday experiences that make our hearts both soar and break-all at the same time.

-Karen Tiber Leland, best selling author The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build

and Accelerate Your Brand