N.A.Hintermann reviewed Draw Me After by Peter Cole
Songs of Falling and (Re-)Building
5 stars
Usually, I don't read much poetry. After attending a talk between Peter Cole and Iman Mersal, both writers I deeply admire, I decided to give Cole's new collection "Draw Me After" a try and I deeply enjoyed it. He opens the first poem, "Edensong", with "Wanting song\ in the beginning\ beginning to end" and ending with "as we're falling\ as Eden is calling\ earth and heaven\ wanting song". (Evoking in me Deuteronomy 32:1, among others) The motive of song is running through the whole collection, small wonder that the book "Song of Songs" came to my mind several times. Even the title of the collection is drawn from a kabbalistic commentary on "Song of Songs". The collection is made up of poems describing/interpreting each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, them being in the kabbalistic imaginative no less than the building blocks of the world. Other poems are translations of other …
Usually, I don't read much poetry. After attending a talk between Peter Cole and Iman Mersal, both writers I deeply admire, I decided to give Cole's new collection "Draw Me After" a try and I deeply enjoyed it. He opens the first poem, "Edensong", with "Wanting song\ in the beginning\ beginning to end" and ending with "as we're falling\ as Eden is calling\ earth and heaven\ wanting song". (Evoking in me Deuteronomy 32:1, among others) The motive of song is running through the whole collection, small wonder that the book "Song of Songs" came to my mind several times. Even the title of the collection is drawn from a kabbalistic commentary on "Song of Songs". The collection is made up of poems describing/interpreting each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, them being in the kabbalistic imaginative no less than the building blocks of the world. Other poems are translations of other poets, whereas others are inspired by works of art by Terry Winters. I admire Cole's ability to masterfully weave together the entire Jewish tradition and modern sensibilities, even politics. The poems work great without deep knowledge of Jewish traditions, but I enjoyed the word-plays evoking Hebrew meanings of letters/words and references to Tanakh and mystical/philosophical sources. I still have the book on my desk and read one per day. My favourite in the collection is the one on the letter Ayin. He plays with meanings, the visual shape of the letter (ע) and kabbilistic concepts. The eye, spring, source (ayin in Hebrew and Arabic) reflecting facets without end is probably the most poetic rendering of my understanding of Judaism. Here is the poem: Ayin
Now he takes it into his mouth ---
this hinged morsel and fork to infinity.
Now it takes it into his truth---
this glyph giving us eye and spring,
source and portal to just about everything
deep within him, and once like Jerusalem,
or maybe the brightness of every beginning
glimmering there in the letters and teaching
whose facets refract and reflect without end
the absolute in us, which always depends.