COMPLETE POETRY IN ENGLISH 1990-2005 FROM YEHUDA AMICHAI RECIPIENT 2012 AND PRIME MINISTER PRIZE 2009
Hailed as one of the leading Israeli poets, Benarroch´s poetry has been published in a dozen languages, including Urdu and Chinese. Julia Uceda considers that Benarroch holds the memory of the world in his poetry, while Jose Luis Garcia Martin thinks that his poems are more than poetry, they are a document. A witness of his time, Benarroch started writing poetry when he was 15, in English, and has always written in his mother tongue Spanish. When he was 20 he also added Hebrew to his poetry languages and he has published six poetry books in Israel. This collection includes all Benarroch's poetry translated into English or written in English and all his books The Immigrant's Lament, Take Me To The Sea, Horses and Other Doubts, The Day The Jihad Destroyed Berlin, The Teachings Of Baraka.
"If I had a nomination vote for the nobel prize he'd be in the running." Klaus Gerken, Ygdrasil editor. His reputation has been steadily growing and his books have been published in Spain, Israel and the U.S.A.
Excerpt
Hailed as one of the leading Israeli poets, Benarroch´s poetry has been published in a dozen languages, including Urdu and Chinese. Julia Uceda considers that Benarroch holds the memory of the world in his poetry, while Jose Luis Garcia Martin thinks that his poems are more than poetry, they are a document. A witness of his time, Benarroch started writing poetry when he was 15, in English, and has always written in his mother tongue Spanish. When he was 20 he also added Hebrew to his poetry languages and he has published six poetry books in Israel. This collection includes all Benarroch's poetry translated into English or written in English and all his books The Immigrant's Lament, Take Me To The Sea, Horses and Other Doubts, The Day The Jihad Destroyed Berlin, The Teachings Of Baraka.
"If I had a nomination vote for the nobel prize he'd be in the running." Klaus Gerken, Ygdrasil editor.
His reputation has been steadily growing and his books have been published in Spain, Israel and the U.S.A.
Call me
Call me later
when your parents are dead
and the line is not busy
Call me, call me later
when your teeth are not bleeding
from the men you ate
and your mouth is not on fire
from the words you did not say
Call me later
when the air is not humid
and your sons stop killing
call me, call me later
when the sauna is closed
and the cars stop smoking
Call me, don't forget to call me
when I have forgotten you.
The fire and the city
The poets are saying it
and the poets are fools
this world is going to destroy itself
we are only discussing
the number of survivors
Because the world was born from chaos
and chaos is what creates a world
Tohu and Bohu were a happy couple,
Tohu the chaos outside
Bohu the chaos inside.
Chaos was enough for chaos
and chaos was enough for the earth
enough also for the sky
and more than enough for God
But Chaos had no choice
and a new world came out of it.
And Neron Burnt Rome
because he knew
that the fire
was more important than the city.
We Wait
We have come to the city
to witness our own death
we have paid the taxes
to build the bomb
and now
we want to see the results
We wait
we don't know who will drop it
we are our own enemies
we just wait
when night comes
and nothing happens
we come back the next day
We have paid a high price for this show
we cannot accept a refund
for unused tickets
We have the right to see the real show.
What kind of God is God
Admiel Kosman, respected poet
was saying on T.V.
that God is in our body
and I couldn't help but think
Does God fart?
The same day
I was thinking about him
what kind of God is God
to choose a people
to ask us to choose life
and then having all the others
kill us all the time
Does this make sense
I wonder
if somewhere along the road
He will have some explanation about this
But, from knowing him
I know He won't dare
to explain anything
His silence
will be the only explanation
we will hear.
The pain of seeing
This is where I belong I said
but by the time I ended the sentence
I didn't belong there anymore
I was out of my own sight
I am one within the whole
I am whole within the one
so, this is the pain
of giving birth to yourself
the world looks more colorful
than color can blind
the world is more depressing
than the new moon
in a clouded night
I am whole within the hole
I have lost my teeth
and the new ones
refrain from growing
This is not where I belong
my place is somewhere else
but else is just a myth
always back to this world
and my dear human race
racing against me
loving the whole
within the hole
I now know the light
the aura
exists
although I still can't see it
I feel it around your head
I belong now to the things
I cannot see
around your head.
The Greatest Writers
Often, years ago
I used to ask myself
how come my favorite writers
were unknown in their lifetimes
or recognized very late
Rimbaud, Bukowski, Kafka...
so many of them so great
I could not understand
how their generations
could miss
such obvious talented writers.
Now, I feel like them
and asking myself
how come
I have been so misinterpreted
misunderstood
the clearer my work looks to me
the darker the others find it,
now I know
it's the clearest writer
that is declined immediately
for
literature
is
faking the real thing
and covering reality with words
and great writers
are exactly the opposite.
The Ballad Of Tommy Banana
The people who bought my book
Horses and Other Doubts
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I can see people reading my poems
dressed in a Tommy Banana shirt
but what the hell is a performance fleece
and what's that got to do with horses
Buy Two clean underwears and one cashmere sweater
and get a 20% discount on Moshe Benarroch's books
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I love you Tommy Banana
and the wonderful world of Marketing.
Rebirth
Everything is going to change
every cell is going to die
and be reborn
and all is going to be different
the whole nervous system
he who remembers
will have a new memory
a newborn out of the living cells
for the first time
like Jesus born from himself
from the woman he once was
and is no longer
born from the cells
cells that became light
in the singing of the sun
in the songs of the moon
light born from itself
and light born from light
and then there will
be no more shadows
to lead the light
and no more lightning
to hear the thunder.
The songs and art in this book are about our collective emergence after the pandemic and trauma of the last few years - comprised of 5 collections: World as Refuge, Where We Live, In Our Hands, Rhythms of Change and What We See & Sow.
This is a book of free verse poetry that addresses the seven main tests in life and offers some sensible solutions to passing those tests with minimal discomfort.
Mary Angela Nangini's poems celebrate the richness of life and love. From the city to cottage-country and the roads in between, Nangini explores the changing seasons of her varied region. (This book will soon be reprinted in hard cover.)
