Take Me to the Sea: SELECTED POEMS 1991-2001 [Paperback]

Moshe Benarroch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2001

A collection of poems of the last decade, including translations from Hebrew and Spanish as well as poems written in English from internationally published poet Moshe Benarroch.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Israeli Bukowski." -- Yedioth Aharonot - July 12, 2002

About the Author

Moshe Benarroch was born in Morocco and lives in Israel. He writes in three languages, Hebrew, Spanish and English and his poetry has been published in hundreds of magazines and anthologies worldwide. He was featured poet in the international Austin poetry festival, 1999, in poetrymagazine.com (july 2000) and has read his poetry in Israel, Spain and the US. He has published ten books, of poetry prose and one novel in Hebrew, Spanish and English.For more information and more poems:http://www.authorsden.com/moshebenarroch

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059520578X
• ISBN-13: 978-0595205783
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,378,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, January 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Take Me to the Sea: SELECTED POEMS 1991-2001 (Paperback)

By all means buy and read this valuable book as soon as possible. You will be richly rewarded, for it is worth your while. There is nothing superficial about these poems, no bla, bla, bla here, Thank God.
Moshe Benarroch is one of the best contemporary poets. He is also one of the most prolific. He is already an author of ten
books, including novels, toms of poetry ond prose. Thanks in part to his incredible presence on the Internet his poems are featured on hundreds of sites and are read and loved throughout the globe.
He has a faithful following in places as exotic as Budapest and Brazil. His poems have been translated into several languages including Chinese. Mr.Benarroch has this rare gift of masterful simplicity of language, while expressing a very complex message of great importance, that can be easily understood by people everywhere who are concerned about injustice, discrimination, war, terrorism, and existential matters, including marriage, love and change. His meaningful and often nostalgic poems combine the honesty of his clear voice with bittersweet beauty of his verse. Unfortunately, this volume was poorly edited
which doesn't do Mr. Benarroch's poetry justice and his publisher needs to wake up.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poetic Incandescence, January 16, 2002

By 

"exile3" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Me to the Sea: SELECTED POEMS 1991-2001 (Paperback)

Benarroche's poetry is born out of the crucible of his journey through life -- redolent of the influences of Spain, Morocco, and Israel, a true metonymy of Exiled Man, a poet powerfully modern, but one who brings to his readers the poignant and terrible centuries of the past. Throughout these 147 poems, Benarroche poignantly speak to discrimination, exile, and immigration, as the reader hears echoes of the Jewish quarters in Seville and Gerona, the ancient Moroccan festival of Mimuna, or the modern streets of Tel Aviv, or inside the Knesset. But his is more than a glimpse into the fascinating worlds that have long since disappeared. From out of this milieu Benarroche weaves marvelous narrative poems, indictments against human pride in our time. Resonating with clarity of voice and intensity of vision, Benarroche writes in well-crafted verse speaking powerfully to the issues of our dawning 21st century. Witness how Benarroche's verse becomes proverbs of our modern world: 'I asked exile to be my country' (Country); 'the only homeland left for me/is the land of poetry' (The Swallows); 'if you see me in the street and I don?t say/hello/it is not a declaration of war/but a look/into the future' (If You See Me In The Street). Benarroche is a poet much deserving of a wider audience.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars accessible and simple without being simplistic, May 25, 2002

By 

R. Hay - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Me to the Sea: SELECTED POEMS 1991-2001 (Paperback)

Moshe Benarroch ... publishes here in English in this 250 pages collection many of his best poems from the last 10 years. The latest poem on the book is probably "Free Aryeh Deri" from 2000, a long poem about the most famous (and according to Benarroch political) prisoner in Israel. Benarroch deals with the inequalities in Israeli society, the discrimination of Jews against Jews He does it constantly and consistently, and has been called by a critic (Yaron Avituv) "the raging bull of Israeli literature". It seems that Benarroch has a good chance of winning the corrida at the end of the day by exhausting the matador. If you think that all this will lead you to your protest poetry plate, you are in for a surprise too, this poetry is incredibly sentimental, cool and collected. The screams are surrounded by whipped cream, the noise of the cars by leaves falling, the cries by the sound of waves on the sea. After all is read and done, the message is a message of forgiveness, of knowing that we are all human and of peace. Suffering in Benarroch's poems is the way to happiness in this world, and in the next too.

Benarroch's poetry has a very personal and unique voice, influenced by Alen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, Pablo Neruda, Israeli and Spanish poetry, as well as South American and north American poetry. The long lines of poets who have influenced him and his encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century poetry, doesn't make him a dull poet to read. On the contrary his poetry is crystal clear, and the nuances and complexities are only seen on a third or forth reading, and not the other way round. It's accessible and simple without being simplistic.