Lulu Marketplace

"from the internet"
North African Poet Finding Israel Limns Worlds Lost & Found
Though writingin a language 5 times removed from his mother tongue, Benarroch finds the music within the body English that is Mediterranean native communication. From ancient roots to post-postmodern shoots this verse springs to life with an immediacy that slaps a reader silly. Tragedy & farce are neighborsin this multi-culti world gone wrong or right, without the arrogance or conceit to interpret any Divine Plan.... This earthy yet aspiring m'shorrer, songmaker, ain't no sophist. He sweats the details, from his coastal Moroccan hometown of Tetuan, to his newfound homelandin the battle scarred Eastern... More > Mediterranean. Benarroch knows not to confuse North African culture with Middle Eastern. He can discern the grain from Amazigh (Berber) couscous to Greek pita to artisan carved Armenian oud melodies spanning thousands of years with waves of invasions through the Levant & Arabic tabbouleh sensualized within a wandering Hebrew soul returning from S'pharad via Tamazgha with cultural treasures, sundrenched spices & moonlit flavors touching tribal base while watching coastlines & blue light curve.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Poetic Incandescence
Benarroch's poetry is born out of the crucible of his journey through life -- redolent of the influences of Spain, Morocco, & Israel, a true metonymy of Exiled Man, a poet powerfully modern, but one who brings to his readers the poignant & terrible centuries of the past. Throughout these 147 poems, Benarroch poignantly speak to discrimination, exile, & immigration, as the reader hears echoes of the Jewish quartersin Seville & Gerona, the ancient Moroccan festival of Mimuna, or the modern streets of Tel Aviv, or inside the Knesset. But his is more than a glimpse into the fascinating worlds that have long since disappeared. From out of this milieu Benarroch weaves marvelous narrative poems, indictments against human pridein our time. Resonating with clarity of voice & intensity of vision, Benarroch writesin well-crafted verse speaking powerfully to the issues of our dawning 21st century. Witness how his verse becomes proverbs of our modern world: 'I asked exile to be my country' (Country); 'the only homeland left for me/is the land of poetry' (The Swallows); 'if you see mein the street & I don't say/hello/it is not a declaration of war/but a look/into the future' (If You See Me In The Street). Benarroch is a poet truly deserving of a wider audience. < Less