Customer Reviews

Take Me to the Sea: SELECTED POEMS 1991-2001

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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.

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.

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.

Though writing in a language 5 times removed from his mother tongue, Benarroch finds the music within the body English that is Mediterranean native communication. From ancient roots to post-postmodern shoots this verse springs to life with an immediacy that slaps a reader silly. Tragedy and farce are neighbors in this multi-culti world gone wrong or right, without the arrogance or conceit to interpret any Divine Plan. Check this out:

"2000 years
we missed Jerusalem
and not Tel Aviv
we missed
the temple
and not MacDonalds
and now everybody's talking
about common sense
economic future
Israeli shares
standard of living
and financial peace
for every piece.

and I say to you
all these things pass will pass
from the world
and forever
in this world
the longing will remain"

Go ask the poet why his first stanza ends with a period, and the second remains open. Echoes of Qabbalistic conundrums over Aiyn Soph? Who knows. This earthy yet aspiring m'shorrer, songmaker, ain't no sophist. He sweats the details, from his coastal Moroccan hometown of Tetuan, to his newfound homeland in the battle scarred Eastern Mediterranean. Benarroch knows not to confuse North African culture with Middle Eastern. He can discern the grain from Amazigh (Berber) couscous to Greek pita to artisan carved Armenian oud melodies spanning thousands of years with waves of invasions through the Levant and Arabic Tabbouleh sensualized within a wandering Hebrew soul returning from S'pharad via Tamazgha with cultural treasures, sundrenched spices and moonlit flavors touching tribal base while watching coastlines and blue light curve.

Who is this mysterious Benarroch who messes with time and space (not to mention punctuation and spelling) so freely blending I and

"We
~~~
When I say we
who am I
when I say we
am I an Israeli
beating Palestinians
or a Moroccan
looking for peace
when
I say we am I
the oppressed or
the oppressor
when I say we
I

never was in a war
never in a concentration camp
when I say we
I never beat an arab
when I say we
stones were thrown at me
by moroccan children
when I say we
am I still me?"

Does discovery ever end?

This is an opportunity to own the collected poetical works of Moshe Benarroch, a very intelligent and witty poet who has an in-depth comprehension of popular culture.

He has a definite style and powerful vision with political digs and towering worries and, of course, contemplations. Indeed, his poetry makes for a beautiful and thought-provoking read.