Let the Words: Selected Poems of Yona Wallach

by Yona Wallach, Linda Stern Zisquit (Translator)

Book by Yona Wallach

Genres: Poetry

180 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2006

About the author

Yona Wallach (1944 - 1985, b. Tel Aviv) was raised in the town of Kiryat Ono (of which her father was a founder). near Tel Aviv. Her father died when she was a young child.

Wallach was active in the "Tel Aviv poets" circle which emerged around the journals Achshav and Siman Kriah in the 1960s, and was a frequent contributor to Israeli literary periodicals. She also wrote for and appeared with an Israeli rock group, and in 1982 her poetry was set to music and a record released. She died in 1985 following a protracted illness. Characterized by "an abundance of nervous energy," Yona Wallach's work combines elements from rock and roll, Jungian psychology and street slang in a body of work known for its break-neck pace and insistent sexuality. Writing in fluid lines, refusing to be limited by any conventional poetic structures, Wallach took upon herself the feminine revolution in Hebrew poetry. Presenting a provocative, blatantly sexual female figure, she became a stylistic model for many women poets.

—ithl.org.il

Reviews

[Jac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geezo Peezo I like her use of repetition. It's manic and hungry and makes me unsettled so good.

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mystics make it easy to believe in the power of language when they wield it like this. Some poems trick with simplicity, others shock with their stark graphic detail, and the most deceptively meaningful lines probe existence itself and dare the reader to move on to the next poem.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely collection but poetry continues to be a genre I struggle to connect to.

[Mills College Library]

892.416 W195L 2006