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| Tali Cohen Shabtai |
Tali Cohen Shabtai, born in Jerusalem, Israel, is a highly-esteemed international poet with works translated into many languages. She has authored four bilingual volumes of poetry, "Purple Diluted in a Black’s Thick"(2007), "Protest" (2012) and "Nine Years From You" (2018). A fourth volume, "A Woman Like Me," will be released in 2022. Tali began writing poetry at the age of six. She lived for many years in Oslo, Norway, and the U.S.A. and her poems express both the spiritual and physical freedom paradox of exile. Her cosmopolitan vision is obvious in her writings. Tali is known in her country as a prominent poet with a unique narrative. As one commentator wrote: “She doesn’t give herself easily, but is subject to her own rules.”
Ideology as a way of life
Women like me, yes
have been added over the years to overshadow
what preceded us
that is mostly
not in line
with our agenda.
The accepted wording is
not what
will satisfy our desires –
Desires? Ours? Well then, I write
in the female first person plural
so as not to sound
as one who sins with pretension
as an individual woman,
however
I do not have many female friends for this journey
and those who have already passed
through a station or two
according to
the
fixed
rules
of society
A woman like me
tries
to stay free
from society
and at the same time
to be in it
with boycotts in double-digit ages
until the arrival
of the adolescence age
and beyond
I bear this bitter
in
sult
so far.
So! Spare judging
me
that “Cohen Shabtai
has rules
of her own…”
as Amos Levitan wrote about me.
I came
with the goal of
satiating inspirations
based on
my theories
Therefore
I collect poems of the margins of humankind,
since
they have a greater potential
to waver from
the conventions –
just like me!
With 50 cents
in my wallet
I
live my own actions
lest
my inarticulate mouth
will be passed over and my eyes?
My eyes are blinded.
Women like me, particularly
at the beginning of
the fifteenth century
were persecuted and burned
for being independent and strong
at the Catholic church’s instruction
Nowadays? You can petition
the High Court of Justice.
So it is for a woman like me
Fantastic
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