Look There: Selected Poems

and your first pregnancy is an exploding bomb.
Under your broad skirt you are pregnant with dynamite
and metal shavings. This is how you walk in the market . . .
                              —from “Woman Martyr”

 

Agi Mishol’s poetry, written in the instability of contemporary Israel, is an astounding balancing act between brave utterance and comic revelation, stark reality and pure pleasure. The poet dreams of being married to Stephen Hawking; men, with all their brazen flaws, are loved, even admired; parents are mourned and remembered; the poet herself freezes in the spotlight of her own poetry reading; a suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant woman walks into a Jerusalem bakery.

Skillfully rendered from the Hebrew into English by Lisa Katz, Look There introduces American readers to a vital new poet, whose depth and verve have earned her an international reputation.