Poetry reading paints pictures of Israel by Jessica Stewart Executive Editor Rachel Tzvia Back painted pictures of places in Israel using sensory descriptions as she read her poetry Tuesday in the Israeli Poets series. Back, born in America and living in Israel, emphasized language’s ability to heal and celebrate. This dichotomy was artfully illustrated in the poetry that she read. Back read from her own works and translations of Leah Goldberg and Susan Howe’s poems originally written in Hebrew. From Goldberg’s work emanated a sense of being between places, and, as Back suggested, these places were being Israeli and European. Back’s series of Buffalo Poems about environment and the parched landscape reflected her observations of the fires in the hills around Jerusalem. Back’s poem described Jerusalem itself calling attention to the stones and rocks. Stones were thrown and history was in the exposed rocks and in the buildings that lay in the streets, Back said in her poem. “The most vivid images for me were the most violent—the death of the children—without being sickening,” said Eva Jaffe ’02. “[Jerusalem has a] pale safety that will not last,” Back said reading from her Buffalo Poems. More pleasant scenes in the rolling hills of Israel’s countryside complemented Back’s delicate descriptions of Jerusalem coping with bloody incidents. Despite the political metaphors implicit in this punished landscape, Back spun a positive outlook into the poem’s end. “Flee to the hills,” Back read suggesting that the buffalo clover in the hills offers escape from the struggles prevalent in Jerusalem. Her poetry often echoed her life journeys. Back migrated north from Jerusalem to Galoli, a small village on a hill between the ruins of two villages, Mihar and Jermac. “In a way, she went north to get away from the conflict they have in Jerusalem where every day it’s a constant struggle,” said Jeremy Zwelling, associate professor of religion. While she escaped from immediate violence, the remnants of historical conflict resonate in Back’s neighborhood. “Where she was going for peace, she met a lot of the antagonism that’s responding to Jerusalem’s violence … So it’s very powerful to hear her poems of the last year and a half that she’s been in the Galoli,” Zwelling said. Back explained the origin of her poems that hold a vivid sense of location in their words. “I live between the ruins of Mihar and the ruins of Jermac,” Back said describing the small village of Galoli north of Jerusalem. “It is where my poetry seems to come from,” she explained. Back’s poetry revealed that though the landscape around her home in the Galoli looks pastoral with its rolling hills, it’s in fact a punished landscape riddled with ruins and relics of historical struggles. Jermac was evacuated in the late 1800s on account of conflict and the village of Mihar on the southern slope of Back’s neighborhood was slowly dismantled, according to Back. “You can see the markings of stones where there must have been homes,” Back said. “My voice is always changing,” Back said. “I hope it moves with me and with everything around me.” Back said her poetry helps her to understand the historical differences between these two ruins. Back lightened the tone of her reading with humor. The Buffalo Poems is a series of poems with an ironic genesis, Back said. Having stopped at the side of the road on her drive home, Back described seeing a buffalo in the hills surrounding Jerusalem. “There were never any buffalo there,” she said and her audience chuckled. “But [the animal] was very clear there in all its bulk,” she added, insisting on her vision. Back dedicated her reading of her poem, “Gravity and Grace”, to therapists in the audience. “While we’re at it, I’ll dedicate it to those in therapy too,” Back added. “Gravity and Grace” articulated her therapeutic relationship with her father. Back noted the difficulties that she encountered writing in English in a non-English land. “Writing poetry, you’re always on the margins. When you’re writing English poetry in Israel, you’re on the margins of margins,” she said. Nevertheless, her poetry has been translated into Hebrew. Back said reading the Hebrew version of her own poems feels like they “came home” and were always meant to be in Hebrew. Back said that the relationship to place in Howe’s work has influenced Back’s own writing. Additionally, she said Emily Dickinson, among others, has affected her writing. Back, who said she has always written, teaches American literature at Tel Aviv University and Oranin University in Haefa. At Tel Aviv, students are mainly Israeli Jews, whereas the demographics of Oranin are more diverse with Israeli Jews, Christians and Muslims, according to Zwelling. Back mentioned the themes of American literature with which Israeli students identified. “Israeli students see their story told out loud when they hear Native American literature,” Back said. Back is the author of Azimuth, a collection of her poetry in English. She has also published Led by Language, a monograph of Howe, an experimental poet. Lena Eson ’04 noted that Back was the first in the five poet series whose work was in English. “It was more clear than the other two,” said Eson, who has attended the first three readings. The fourth poet in the series is Taha Muhammad Ali who will read on Tuesday at Russell House.

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