Helen
Bar-Lev, IL
Spring
Again
As I write this,
I am also preparing the May newsletter of Voices Israel,
which is chock full of poetic activities. If you are
interested in following our monthly newsletter just go to
www.voicesisrael.com
and click on to Newsletter & Poet’s Voice. I try to have the
newsletter online on the 1st of every month.
Briefly, there will be two workshops this month, one on the
17th at the David Yellin College in Jerusalem. The
presentations will be inspiring: Joanna Chen: The Use of
Colour in Poetry. Andrea Moriah: Writing in the Persona of
Another. Ruth Fogelman will look at the works of British
Denise Levertov and/or the American Mary Oliver. Yos si
Gotlieb "Conjugality…," and "Bialik Hall" as departure
points for discussion and how these works relate to
existentialism and transcendentalism.
The other workshop is a grander affair – at the Blue Bay
Hotel in Netanya, from the 31st of May until 1 June, with
most participants sleeping over at this nice hotel which
overlooks the Mediterranean and is just far enough out of
the crowded city of Netanya to be pleasant. The name of the
event is Poetry-by-the Sea. From 5 – 9 p.m. with an hour out
for dinner, Esther Cameron (the judge of the 2011 Reuben
Rose Annual Competition and editor-in-chief of the
Deronda Review), vi a a udio presentation, will give
a workshop entitled: “Our Most Classical Poems, and Their
Stories”. The following morning from 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.,
Prof. William Kolbrener of Bar-Ilan University will be
holding a workshop: on "Religion, Love and Loss in Milton`s
Paradise Lost."
Both workshops should be marvelous events and I hope to have
some poems for you from those workshops for the next issue
of SKETCHBOOK.
In addition, Voices has been invited to attend the
International Creative Writing Conference of the Shaindy
Rudoff Graduate Course in Creative Writing from Sunday -
Tuesday 6-8th May at Bar Ilan University. This diverse and
fascinating series is free and open to the public.
I bet you wish you could be here this May!
Cyclamens and Swords is now accepting poems, short stories
and artwork for our August issue. Poems must be on the theme
UNFORGETTABLE.
Deadline for submissions is 15 July 2012. Send to:
johnmichael@cyclamensandswords.com or to me, hbarlev@netvision.net.il
No previously published poems. See our website for complete
guidelines.
Voices Israel announces the 23rd annual Reuben Rose Poetry
Competition
SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNTIL THE 1ST
OF JUNE.
Judges: Kenneth Salzmann of USA, Yakov Azriel, last year’s
first prize winner and Dina Yehuda, last year’s 3rd prize
winner.
First prize - $500, second prize - $150, third prize - $50.
Ten honorable mentions. Prizewinners and all honorable
mentions will be published in the Voices Israel 2013
Poetry Anthology.
-
The
competition is general and not necessarily on Jewish or
Israeli subjects.
-
Challenging,
humorous and/or curious poetry is welcome.
-
Poems should
be unpublished, no more than 40 lines, including stanza
breaks but not including title.
-
Use the
online submission form at
http://www.voicesisrael.com/reubenrosecompetition.htm
to submit your poems.
-
Poems are
judged anonymously
-
Submission
period: Competition poems must be received during the
period June 1st. 2012 - September 30th. 2012.
-
Cost: Voices
Israel members: US$5.00 for one poem, $10 for 3 poems,
$15 for 6 poems. Non members: US$6.00 for one poem, $12
for 3 poems, $18 for 6 poems.
-
Payment by
PayPal after you submit your online submission form.
In the meantime
our country, true to its Mediterranean climate, is drying
out. There has been virtually no rain in April, though March
set a record for rainfall and all the wildflowers in the
country responded gratefully. Last Tuesday Johnmichael and I
were driving to Nahariya, which is west of Metulla, on the
northern road – a two-lane road with virtually no traffic
and exquisite landscape. And for the first time in our
combined nearly 100 years in Israel, we saw the wild iris,
Iris Mesopotamica, picture below. There were at least 50 of
them, just in this one spot along the road – the stems are
exceptionally long and their colour is lilac – even
Wikipedia does not have a photo of it! This photo
was taken in the evening.
You may have
seen this poem before, since I wrote it seven years ago and
it appears in our book Cyclamens and Swords and Other
Poems About the Land of Israel, but as it is
appropriate, here it is again:
Free Verse
Spring
Again
Too
beautiful my country
in your green and golden spring costumes
with a dash of pinks and purples
thrown in to further delight
already intoxicated eyes
poppies peek red
blooming fruit trees disappear
into Heaven’s horizon
A field of cows
then of sheep, as yet unshorn,
mingle amongst the rocks, the green,
almost unseen camouflaged creatures,
each glistens different in the generous sun
I lose myself through all this beauty
disappear into the amazement of it
disintegrate into its exquisiteness
absorb myself into it
so that I am a colour in its palette
a speck in its loveliness
It is as though God thought of artists
when he created flowers
invented spring greens
I cannot conceive a reality without the existence
of a spring filled Israel
And strange how each year I forget,
caught up as I am
in the enjoyment of spring’s sister seasons,
that I have been this ravenous
to feast on spring again
Helen Bar-Lev,
artist, poet
www.helenbarlev.com
Senior Editor, Cyclamens and Swords Publishing
www.cyclamensandswords.com
Secretary, Voices Israel Group of Poets in English
www.voicesisrael.com
Contributing editor and global correspondent,
SKETCHBOOK, A Journal for Eastern and Western Short
Forms
http://poetrywriting.org/
International Senior Poet Laureate, 2009
Amy Kitchener Foundation
