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"A well of milk in the middle of a city" 6 March 2013 Poet Meir Wieseltier edited the complete volume of Hezy Leskly’s poetry that was published … |
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Speaking in tongues 1 July 2012 Can one write? How to achieve utter simplicity? Would it not be better to remain silent if one is … |
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Leaving poetry for life, or not? 1 July 2012 Lyor Shternberg’s beautiful fourth book centers on the writer’s search for a new path. … |
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When a famous writer knocks at the door 15 April 2012 Zali Gurevitch’s mother’s dream sparks a conversation between Zali and his friend, the poet and … |
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The serious play of writing 15 April 2012 The stress on the poetical within social science comes as a call for experimentation in freer … |
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A great woman: on Esther Ettinger’s ‘Elisha’ 1 February 2012 Elisha the prophet is cut off from humanity because he is a holy man, who nevertheless is able to … |
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Sunrise Sets Fire to the Trees: A review 1 February 2012 Tuvia Ruebner, the 2008 Israel Prize laureate, is one of three important Israeli poets who have … |
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On Yudit Shahar’s first book 1 February 2012 Yudit Shahar’s poetic language in her first book, It’s Me Speaking, corresponds pretty closely … |
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Rendering a reborn tongue 3 August 2011 PIW Israel editor Lisa Katz reviews the third film in a trilogy by director Nurit Aviv about the … |
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I will return to my silences: An overview of T. Carmi’s poetry 15 July 2011 Carmi was a prolific poet and translator, one of the few poets born in the United States who wrote … |
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What T. Carmi Taught Me 15 July 2011 ‘Midrash’ is one of those concepts which are easy to comprehend but difficult to define, … |
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Aryeh Sivan: Love of cheese . . . and country 15 July 2011 There are few books of prose, that is, novels or short stories, which I read more than once. Even … |
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Why don’t we hear more about Aryeh Sivan? 15 July 2011 Recurrence is Aryeh Sivan’s thirteenth book of poems. Born in 1929, he is one of the leading … |
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Eli Hirsh on Tal Nitzán’s The First to Forget 15 July 2011 Tal Nitzán’s fourth collection of poems is an impressive book in which she reveals herself for the … |
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On the side of the shout: A review of Tal Nitzán’s books 15 July 2011 Tal Nitzán’s two latest books are, in a sense, mirror images of each other. The previous one, … |
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Talmud, and Eros too, in a divided world 1 July 2011 With Carmi’s knowledge of Hebrew poetry, there was, in fact, no need to go to English literature … |
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Different sex 1 January 2011 A review of Anat Zecharya’s first collection, Yafa Ahat Kodem (As Soon as Beautiful), published by … |
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Outspoken and intimate 1 January 2011 Anat Zecharya’s first book “is filled with outspokenly erotic poems,” critic Yuval Paz notes in a … |
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A person must sing 1 January 2011 Poetry, he said, should transmit “an enormous world of emotion. What do I need irony for?” |
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A green clarity 1 January 2011 What we have here is an aspiration to the fleetingness of animals and flowers, of a stream, a … |
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Listening with “all my ears” 1 January 2011 “The key to his world, or, it may better be said, to the understanding of the place of the … |
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Interview: Moroccan-born Israeli poet Mois Benarroch 15 July 2010 Moving from Morocco to Israel at the age of 13 was like moving from one planet to … |
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“Her flower is the briar, which does not hide its thorns” 15 July 2010 Esther Raab was born in Petah Tikvah – Gateway of Hope – the earliest Jewish settlement in Ottoman … |
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How native can a (woman) poet be? 15 July 2010 Esther Raab, a Hebrew poet born in Ottoman Palestine, is often touted as an exemplary native … |
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A different kind of sexuality 15 July 2010 What is it about Esther Raab’s poetry that reaches inside me and disturbs me so deeply? How can I … |
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The pain of two homelands 15 July 2010 ‘ON MY GOING UP TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL’ The time has come to talk about this: I didn’t come here. … |
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An Introduction to Nano-poetics 1 January 2010 According to poet Gilad Meiri, “down here, in daily life, in the low-rent districts of the masses, … |
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Understanding a Runaway Soul 1 July 2009 Ariel Zinder’s poetry uses the literature of his Jewish heritage in much the way T.S. … |
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Welcome to PIW Israel - July 2009 1 July 2009 The Israeli pages are back with three very different poets, two of whom are still in their … |
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The Iron Girl 1 July 2009 “I’m in Tadeusz Kantor’s room/ a quarter hour a whole world/ we meet in the dead … |
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Modest and Focused 1 July 2009 Shai Dotan’s self-effacing and extremely attentive poetry is “keen proof of our need for … |
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A poem which avoids answering the question "Why me?" 1 November 2006 Those who are not vegetarians do not usually consider the suffering of animals who end up on their … |
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Yesterday's victims are tomorrow's heros and the victims of the day after tomorrow 1 November 2006 The question embedded in the title of Ayman Agbaria’s poem immediately awakens a sense of … |
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An Introduction to the Festival Poets, August 2006 1 August 2006 In the same streamlined “poetry festival” mode as our previous edition, here is the work of five … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - May 2006 1 May 2006 The Israeli pages of the site are about to take on a completely new face, after thirteen issues … |
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The 7th International Jerusalem “Mishkenot Sha’ananim” Poetry Festival 1 May 2006 On the prestigious and eclectic festival to take place in autumn in Jerusalem, that city of … |
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Combining East and West 1 February 2006 Touching the world of ordinary people who live here or there, and who attempt to find a purpose to … |
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Foreign work and foreign workers: on Ronny Someck’s ‘Arabic Work’ 1 February 2006 Contempt for foreign workers has its source in fear of the unknown, but also in the need to hand … |
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Talking to the living walls: on Haviva Pedaya’s ‘one who speaks to the absent’ 1 February 2006 Writing poetry and praying are two forms of addressing ‘the absent’, but both forms of … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - February 2006 1 February 2006 The fourth year of the Israeli section of PIW begins with the presentation of two contemporary … |
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Writing a mythology of women’s relations 2 October 2005 October 1, 2005 I felt I had a great mission, to give expression to a place within me that had … |
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“The one at home desires to leave, the one outside, to enter” 2 October 2005 October 1, 2005 Is this voyage a matter of being turned out of the house – from houses … |
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“The distance from wakefulness to sleep”: on Liat Kaplan’s ‘Fantasy’ 2 October 2005 October 1, 2005 A depiction of the desire to cease functioning completely in which the writer … |
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Dialogue on dichotomies 2 October 2005 October 1, 2005 Liat Kaplan believes in work rather than inspiration, doesn’t find much … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - October 2005 1 October 2005 Two contemporary Israeli poets share an interest in the world and the soul – closely observing … |
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On Bialik’s ‘Return’: where to and what for? 1 August 2005 August 1, 2005 Is it possible to become a citizen of the world? Might not this situation, … |
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Bialik: caught in a world whose God is dead 1 August 2005 It is the personal Bialik who is admired today, the poet of the inner life, of tension and duality … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - August 2005 1 August 2005 There is no future without presence and no presence without past: Hebrew poetry sticks to its … |
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Not only spiritual leaders, but also the moon can teach Bible. 2 May 2005 Lovers of Zelda’s work emphasize again and again that she was a religious person. Israeli writer … |
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The flame and the cypress and self-control 2 May 2005 May 1, 2005 Must understanding and faith dictate silence in the face of an encounter with … |
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I step into your shoes and become a part of you 2 May 2005 May 1, 2005 Can a poem bridge the gap between victim and murderer? How may switching roles spread … |
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Translation as the art of intimacy 2 May 2005 In the eyes of a doctoral student on scholarship in Jerusalem of the 1970’s: an image of Zelda as … |
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“I composed poetry before I knew how to write” 2 May 2005 How does an interest from childhood on in ancient myth mix with curiosity about the soul and … |
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Amir Or’s Poem and the sacrifice of being 2 May 2005 A glance in the mirror or a look at the Other? An English poet and editor examines a book by an … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - May 2005 1 May 2005 After the two ‘scandalous’ poets who opened our third year online, Aharon Shabtai and Efrat … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - February 2005 1 February 2005 Despite the voices repeating themselves day and night about the end of Hebrew poetry and/or the … |
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In Memory of Mohammed Hamza Ghanayem (1957-2004) 31 January 2005 A poet who devoted most of his literary energy to the encounter between Arabic and Hebrew writing, … |
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Translator’s Introduction to J’Accuse 31 January 2005 The poems of Hebrew poet Aharon Shabtai’s J’Accuse cover a period of some six years, from the … |
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The Importance of Lightness 31 January 2005 Efrat Mishori’s poetry is characterized by its ‘lightness’. The ability to dismantle situations … |
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I am the Model of Poetry 31 January 2005 Efrat Mishori, a wild rapper with a master’s degree in literature, takes poetry out of the … |
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Freedom wins in the end 31 January 2005 February 1, 2005 ‘Passover, 2002’ is an excellent example of a poem of few words and modest … |
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On the Translator Robert Friend (1913-1998) 1 November 2004 Robert Friend, who died in January 1998 in Jerusalem, was one of Israel's most prominent … |
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I fell in love with Rachel 1 November 2004 To say that the poet Rachel’s spiritual world is shallow or limited, would be like saying that the … |
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Longing for the country of the heart 1 November 2004 November 1, 2004 Can the phrase “love of homeland” maintain its purity in an era which spews blood … |
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On the Shores of the Kinneret 1 November 2004 The poet Rachel celebrates the hard work of pioneer women and men, and hears the Bible at the Sea … |
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On ‘His Mother’ 1 November 2004 Gouri turns a biblical victory into a human loss, taking the part of a defeated leader and his … |
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On ‘It Seems to Me’ 1 November 2004 Similar in feeling to ‘Odysseus’, this poem makes a direct personal assertion of the speaker’s … |
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On ‘Odysseus’ 1 November 2004 The primacy of the individual in a poem in which Classical Greek and traditional Hebrew elements … |
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On ‘The One Who Came After Me’ 1 November 2004 Gouri sees the way religion threatens Israeli culture and doesn’t shrink from calling it … |
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The Lightning of Reconciliation 1 November 2004 An early review of an early volume of poetry by Chaim Gouri (1960): “Just how much submission, … |
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“Aesthetic Distance” in Contemporary Israeli Poetry 1 November 2004 On the loss of languages and cultures: how is the development of contemporary Israeli poetry … |
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“Taking liberties”: the translator’s approach to Rachel 1 November 2004 How a middle-class Russian Jewish woman became a Hebrew poet while writing in a style reminiscent … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - November 2004 1 November 2004 Welcome to the eighth edition of the Israeli pages of PIW. The current offering focuses on the … |
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“Whoever uproots the house of another, in the end his soul will be uprooted” 2 August 2004 Dvora Amir’s poetry says what should be well understood, but isn’t always taken for granted, … |
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The Courage to Touch the Coals 2 August 2004 Amir is situated in a world where the tools she has developed to write poetry are no longer … |
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The City of the Walking Flower 2 August 2004 “Jerusalem is best kept in the cellars of the imagination,” writes Salman Masalha in … |
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Palestinian Literature Vanished on the Way to the Classroom 2 August 2004 What sort of Arab literature is taught at Israeli schools and to whom? This recent article from … |
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On the Wings of Freedom 2 August 2004 “In Masalha’s poetry we feel as though a storm wind is blowing without taking into … |
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Double Agent in Hebrew 2 August 2004 What does a poet gain when he loses himself in the world? – A unique creative privilege. … |
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Alas the Smiling Homeland 2 August 2004 In the joint poetry class for writers of Hebrew and writers of Arabic in Tel Aviv, art transcends … |
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A Mixture of Identities 2 August 2004 “The most notable thing that arises from the texts is the reflection of the poet’s … |
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Being Free – Without an Excuse? 2 August 2004 August 1, 2004 Is the national era more or less free than the previous ones? And is freedom given … |
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As If I Knew the World before the Creation of Humankind 2 August 2004 Dvora Amir’s documentary poetry is unaccompanied by wails or shouts for vengeance. Still, it is … |
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Origins 2 August 2004 The beginning of Hebrew poetry is recorded in the Bible, whose very first book refers to the … |
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Life is a question we are the answer to 2 August 2004 August 1, 2004 What does freedom mean to a person who is not free? What is the meaning of life in … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - August 2004 1 August 2004 Welcome to the seventh edition of the Israeli pages of PIW. The current offering focuses on two … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - May 2004 1 May 2004 These web pages focus mainly on poetry by living Israeli writers, while earlier poets whose … |
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On Shimon Adaf’s ‘Someone writes about another’ 30 April 2004 May 1, 2004 When are poets writing about themselves and when are they writing about others? What … |
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On Avoth Yeshurun 30 April 2004 In his review of Yeshurun’s collection Master of Rest, Gabriel Levin finds that“the faultline … |
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Keeping in the difficulty 30 April 2004 In this excerpt from the foreword to the English edition of The Syrian African Rift, Harold … |
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Girl Inside Girl Inside Girl Inside Girl 30 April 2004 In this excerpt from her memoir Games of Loneliness, Nurit Zarchi describes her search for a pair … |
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A review of Wild Light: Selected Poems of Yona Wallach 12 February 2004 Yona Wallach belonged to that group of iconoclastic poets who “created out of their private world … |
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On translating Yona Wallach 12 February 2004 Yona Wallach's was a voice that was not heard before in modern Hebrew: “the female voice of an … |
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Working with the poet 12 February 2004 A translator’s view of Israel’s most anti-establishment poet, over the last forty years. “From the … |
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Too loud? 12 February 2004 Even a simple poem is sometimes misunderstood, argues Menachem Benn in this analysis of … |
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To cry and laugh and build a bridge 12 February 2004 Some thoughts on Meir Wieseltier’s ‘The Journey of the Great Egyptian Obelisk to the West’, from … |
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On Yona Wallach 12 February 2004 In this essay on Yona Wallach's life and work, and the illness that proved decisive for both, … |
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Welcome to Israeli poetry - February 2004 1 February 2004 These web pages focus mainly on poetry by living Israeli writers, while earlier poets whose … |
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The poet speaks about his poetry 17 November 2003 “My poems drowned in the ocean or were swallowed by fish.” |
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The material book itself 17 November 2003 “This exactitude, the painting, the repetition, the declarations and the bibliographic … |
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The Halo of Refusal 17 November 2003 “He would come to frustrate many friends…he had stopped writing poems entirely.” |
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On the poverty of plant life, and the delights of discourse: on Israel Har’s “Pauper’s Discourse on a Bush” 17 November 2003 “[My] word that goes forth from my mouth...shall not return to me empty” |
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A translator’s note on Avraham Ben Yitzhak 17 November 2003 “Scrupulous, luminous, reticent, receptive” |
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Welcome to Israeli Poetry - November 2003 1 November 2003 These web pages focus mainly on poetry by living Israeli writers, while earlier poets whose … |
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Is it possible to fool death? 11 August 2003 Hardly anything tangible remains of those killed interror attacks. What ever remains to us of … |
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On the Necessity of Poetry Festivals & Poetry for Humans 11 August 2003 “Poetry doesn’t owe anything to anyone” – Letters to Ha’aretz (June 20, 2003) |
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The Comic Sybil 11 August 2003 In Israeli poetry’s noise-filled space, Agi Mishol’s lyric voice is one ofthe most lucid, pleasant … |
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Reflections on Taha Muhammad Ali 11 August 2003 It is hard to think of another Palestinian poet of Ali’s generation who writes with such intimacy … |
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Interview with Agi Mishol 11 August 2003 “I had the feeling that I couldn't write about what I usuallydo; I could say: I don't care … |
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Lea Goldberg and her poetry 11 August 2003 This is a poetry that recognizes limits—its own limits—to advantage. |
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Interview with Gali-Dana Singer 30 June 2003 “The Hebrew language has entered deep inside me, and taken control.” |
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Survival, a difficult task even for fish 6 June 2003 Zach depicts the way in which an individual’s experience becomes public property, or, alternately, … |
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A dress of fire and a burning betrayal 8 May 2003 A person who devotes herself completely to literary creation is often a naked person. |
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Look here! 8 May 2003 Look here! Poems by Dahlia Ravikovitch await you. No need for an introduction. Her name and work … |
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Solomon Ibn Gabirol 8 May 2003 Solomon Ibn Gabirol was born in Málaga (Spain) in 1021 or 1022 and died more than thirty years … |
POEM
CHICKEN LITTLE IN LOVE
I’m through! I’m through!
she says and resays.
The years …
POEM
BEIRUT TANK
Staring up into the tank’s belly lit
by a bare bulb hanging down off
the …
POEM
PYRO
You’re gonna strike the match—
You’re gonna strike …
POET
Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen
Vigdis Hjorth Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen is a writer, architect, graphic artist and songwriter. …
POET
Tone Hødnebø
Janike Kampevold Larsen Tone Hødnebø was born in Oslo and grew up in Tønsberg, a …
POET
Monica Aasprong
Gunnar Wærness The work of Monica Aasprong (b. 1969, Kristiansund, Norway) is distinguished by a …
POET
Shuntaro Tanikawa
Takako Lento Shuntaro Tanikawa has been a phenomenon in Japan since the publication of his first …
POET
Bella Li
Bella Li
Bella Li is a Melbourne poet. Born in northeastern China, she immigrated to …
POET
Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill is a Goan-Anglo-Indian writer who lives in Sydney. She writes …
POET
Merlinda Bobis
Merlinda Bobis Filipino-Australian writer Merlinda Bobis has published in three languages (English, …
ARTICLE
44th Poetry International Festival Rotterdam
For the 44th time in a row, Poetry International brings you a selection of the best …
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