Ilan Berkovich's new book of poetry: Lamented in the Peace Army Israel today

"Everything is poetry: the eclectic collection" is the sixth book of poems by the poet and poetry critic Ilan Yosef Berkovich.

The book Ab Hares, in relation to books of poetry of course, includes about 130 poems, varying in level and quality.

The book would certainly have been donated if the poet, or some editor, had left out the greater part, the ones that don't shine like stars.

The book, as its name implies, is eclectic (small).

At the beginning of the book, a quote from the "Encyclopedia of Ideas" is given as a motto, which explains that eclecticism is one of the postmodern hallmarks of art in our generation.

Indeed, the book uses a mixture of many political and topical poems, family and biographical poems, contemplative-philosophical poems, as well as a considerable amount of poems that correspond with archaeological findings.

However, in this case the eclecticism and the wild jumping between topics and between different tones and spaces of poetry impair the power of the book and make it messy, to the point that reading it sometimes resembles being in a room whose ceiling flickers with a fluorescent lamp at an irregular rate.

Despite the eclecticism, it is easy to notice that the bulk of the poems in the book are what can be called "topical reaction poems": poems written at a known time (which is usually explicitly stated in a note), as a response to a certain news story (which is sometimes quoted in a summary alongside the poem).

Many of Alterman's famous "Seventh Column" songs are exactly like that.

Berkovich writes about a variety of news that arouses him both anger and sadness - stampede attacks, the murder of the girl Hillel Ariel, the murder of Ali Dawabsha, the stoning of a young Afghan woman under false pretenses of apostasy, the news about a homeless man who was stoned to death in Jaffa, the ultra-orthodox demonstrations, the Nahal Tzfit disaster, the events of the mass massacre in the United States "B, the awareness day for the disappearance of Yemeni children, or the death of 60 Gaza residents during a violent demonstration on the border fence: "The person crying / is me / and the blood that was spilled on the fence / is also mine".

Indeed, all of these "trigger" events, which gave birth to many of Berkovic's poems included in this book, are touching, shocking, sad and frustrating events.

But the question that is asked is what is the role of these songs.

Are they, as Natan Zech wrote, intended to sweeten the horrors and provide a place of refuge and a way of coping: "On what stage to sweeten days if not with songs", or does Berkovic see another purpose in his poems.

The same thing is, which is in the first place.

In light of this statement, it seems that the songs are not just a way of venting or expressing the frustration from the bitter reality, but a real attempt to change the sad Israeli reality.

And then the most acute question that hovers over the reading of the book arises - is nowadays, as it was doubtful even in Alterman's time, writing poetry might affect the public?

Does she have the power to change reality?

It seems that Berkovich deals with this poignant question in the poem "Signs in the World", which was chosen to adorn the back of the book, in which he seems to declare that poetry has indeed completely lost its public power and is only intended to "sweeten days" or leave a mark on the world: "The path of my life leads me to death I have to do it. 

Ilan Yosef Berkovich / Everything Poetry: The Eclectic Collection, Magazine 77, 147 p.

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