Less Like a Dove

"Agi Mishol, one of the most popular poets of Israel, captures the imagination and the heart of Israeli readers by observing common daily realities through a contemplative, sometimes meditative, perspective, negotiating the space between the mundane and the spiritual with a lively sense of humor. Having overcome such dissociations of sensibility, Mishol's poems are flushed with a flow of vitality and freshness. With no undue emphasis, eschewing declarative pronouncements, the poet points to the important truths looming behind the veil of the trivial. Avoiding opacity and heaviness of any kind her carefully chosen words, semantically loaded to the brim, also throb with reined-in musicality and elan. The current selection of Mishol's poems represents the latest phase in the development of the poet's work in full ripeness."