Poet
Philip Levine Was Working-Class Poet Inspired by Yiddishkeit
Philip Levine has died at 87. Benjamin Ivry pens an appreciation of a feisty poet who was inspired by working class roots — and a family tradition of Yiddishkeit.
Poet Laureate Philip Levine Dies at 87
Poet laureate Philip Levine has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87. The Jewish wordsmith never forgot his working-class roots — and won’t soon be forgotten.
Poet Juan Gelman, Jewish Critic of Argentina Dictatorship, Dies
Argentinian Jewish poet Juan Gelman, a critic and activist against the country’s military governments of 1976 to 1983, has died.
Hungarian Jewish Poet's Statue Struck By a Car, Breaks in Half
A statue of Hungarian Jewish poet Miklos Radnoti, who was killed by Hungarian Nazis at the end of 1944, was broken in two parts after being struck by a car.
The Midrashic Achievement of Poet John Hollander
Poet John Hollander, who died on August 17, was a noted critic from Yale and Columbia and a much anthologized poet.
"Piss Stains on Tan Pants" (2013)
I read “piss stains on tan pants…”
Naomi Replansky’s Career Began in a Factory
Naomi Replansky, the 94-year-old poet whose work has been known to only a select few, is out with a new book that retains “an inner blitheness,” writes Benjamin Ivry.
Scottish National Poet Demands Boycott of Israeli Dancers
Scotland’s national poet has joined a group calling for a boycott of the Israeli dancing group Batsheva, set to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Eden Ahbez "Nature Boy" Song Poem animation
Heres a virtual movie of the Californian singer songwriter,poet,mystic Hippy nomad Eden ahbez (1908 - 1995) virtualy singing his most famous song “Nature Boy” made famous to the world by that other genius Nat King Cole. “Nature Boy” is a song by eden ahbez, published in 1947. The song tells a fantasy of a “strange enchanted boy… who wandered very far” only to learn that “the greatest thing… was just to love and be loved in return”. Nat King Cole’s 1948 recording of the song was a major hit and “Nature Boy” has since become a pop and jazz standard, with dozens of major artists interpreting the song. The first two measures of the song’s melody parallel the melody of the second movement in Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Op. 81 (1887). It is unknown if ahbez was familiar with Dvořák’s piece, or if he arrived at the same melodic idea independently. Yiddish theater star/producer Herman Yablokoff, in Memoirs of the Yiddish Stage, claimed that the melody to “Nature Boy” was plagiarized from his song “Shvayg, Mayn Harts” (“Hush, My Heart”), which he wrote for his play Papirosn (1935).[1] ahbez protested his innocence, claiming to have “heard the tune in the mist of the California mountains,” but later agreed to pay Yablokoff $25000 in an out-of-court settlement.[2] The song is based on a 1940s Los Angeles-based group called “Nature Boys,” a subculture of proto-hippies of which ahbez was a member I would love to see or hear Ahbez actualy sing his song in person,but …
What Gunter Grass Really Said
The German writer’s attempt to brand an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as an attempt to destoy the Iranian people is a grotesque distortion of the facts.