This book, Yehuda Amichai's Selected Poetry, wins the award for "poetry book I take off the shelf and read most often and try to carry around with me at times."

Yehuda Amichai is an Israeli poet. He died in 2000.

Please enjoy this poem (with audio): "A Letter of Recommendation."

"Oh touch me, touch me, good woman!

That's not a scar you feel under my shirt, that's

a letter of recommendation, folded up tight,

from my father:

'All the same, he's a good boy, and full of love.'"

Why do I love his poems so much? I have no idea. I just do.*

Hat tip: I was first introduced to Amichai's poems in my 20th Century Literature class in college, with the wondrous Marilyn Chandler McEntyre.

*This is a terrible answer in a creative writing class, but this is my blog, and I have no explanation — which frustrates me — but there you go.