Thank you so much for posting this in-depth review for my poetry book Can We Still Love.
A Family Affair
As I started this book by Uvi Poznansky and her father, Zeev Kachel, I was immediately introduced to a collection of poems that not only touched me, they sprung me directly into what it is like to be at war. “Here are we, both, in murk adrift…” images settling on dark waters transformed into “I opened a window into the night. Against the backdrop of the world aflame stood the executioner.”
Furthermore, her father’s, “a mad rush of rage and murder sloshed all over our world” and “We knew: the hour is for hardship, it is for the doomed” had me picturing the desperation of war. Continuing on through the various poems, I particularly enjoyed how few words could produce such powerful imagery. Imagery such as “With heavy hearts, the column moved silent into the dark, armored vehicles, steel helmets… Trenches, fences, barricades loomed...we knew the hour is for not only for hardships, it is for the doomed.”
“In the nightly scent up that slope, shoots sprang up as if wishing to hope.” Then “Years Passed. Victory doesn’t heal wounds…” and “There’s no one there, so it would seem... And you’ll catch a glimpse of the battlefield. A lost backpack… A letter, sealed.”
When Ms. Poznansky adds her own works, they also talk about war, with a more modern view: “...so-called smart munitions coming at moms. At teacher, at pupils, who know their names. They’re just targets in the crosshairs on screens of war games.”
Reading these thoughtful and powerful lyrics, I was struck by the repeated idea: Is war worth the casualties? Hence this: “A wooden horse in the corner rocks with a clack. The boy hesitates, then hops on its back. Oy, the boy will grow up, he’ll turn older. Will he fall in action when he’s a soldier?” As well as “Who’ll feel the hurt of scorched fields, parched terrains? Who’ll cry for shrubs burns, leaves tossed in flames?”
With such a unique and effective book, how could I not highly recommend it? Five stars!
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