Lior Maayan, born in Israel, live with my wife near Tel Aviv. I'm a hi-tech entrepreneur with Physics & Math background and executive-level career. Member of the 2022-23 Alma-Metanel Fellowship Program. A graduate of the first Helicon Arabic-Hebrew poetry program & Makom Leshira Arabic-Hebrew Poetry Translation initiative. Weizmann Institute Life Verse Poetry Laurate. My work appeared in numerous publications including Granta, Asymptote, Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot, Write-Haus, Nanopoetica, Mashiv Haruach, Kol Alarab (Arabic tr.), OtroLunes (Spanish tr.) etc. My book "That Green" (Dr. Shira Stav editor), was published by Afik Publishing house in 2019.
We went to sit by the sea
on the beach, in Jaffa.
You said: “I love you this evening”
And I hugged the wind tightly
Trying not to fall.
There was a piano and our child
Came over and sat by it to play
On my birthday
When I hugged the wind tightly
Blessed, trying not to fall.
LA PELL DE BRAU [the bull skin]
“El lent record dels dies Que son passats per sempre”
(Salvador Espriu, Cementiri de Sinera)
He is searching for his end
No, he’s searching for the end of the search
Set to be prepared
He feels the void in his body.
Determined to mark
Disassembles all matter to what is and what was,
Resets, hesitates,
Crying like summer rain drops on the sea.
He’s the bull
Sensing his skin
Entering the arena, searching
Can’t find his return
in return.
Chewing
The unchewable
Set to consider what does not matter
To know yet again
That he will never return to this
random café corner,
Catalan bookseller, mirror
Bare breast, aspiration
Others, lips mist, tongue
Foreign city, street lingo, avenue.
And the bulls will never return to the arena.
BEING
Whole other being lives aside my own
While I can sleep all morning long
The nearby city full of life goes on
like a lone river flowing while around
all other rivers run aside, in front, behind
That’s how I feel my tangled life through one
second on earth, second to none.
Poetry in this post: © Lior Maayan
Published with the permission of Lior Maayan