Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Peter Cole: Poems, Stumbling and Pints

Last night, in the historic surroundings of the Fraunces Tavern, critically acclaimed Jewish poet Peter Cole, gave a reading of contemporary meditations on an age-old struggle.

Cole set the tone for the evening by introducing his first poem ‘Meaning Of’ as a “take on my own Messianic inclinations — not to mention those of my people”. Cole — poet, translator and publisher — proceeded to hold the Tavern audience rapt as he read from his 2008 collection “Things on Which I’ve Stumbled.”

For Cole, resident in Jerusalem, Israel is the thing upon which he stumbles everyday. To move beyond a messianic response he has written and translated poetry that explores the ethical and spiritual dimensions of humanity and his own Judaism.

Alongside this philosophical discussion Cole also contemplates the political realities of the Israel/Palestine conflict — “Things” emphasizes the need for coexistence in a shared homeland whilst criticizing extremists and fundamentalists of all stripes.

Cole’s are important poems and, like most good literature, worth hearing with a drink in your hand!

Cole and his wife, writer Adina Hoffman, run Ibis Editions, a small Jerusalem based book press specializing in literature of the Levant. Born in Paterson, N.J., Cole won the 2004 PEN-America Translation Award was named a MacArthur fellow in 2007. Four of his poems recently featured in Zeek magazine.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.