*

Tali Cohen Shabtai is a poet. She was born in Jerusalem, Israel. Tali studied at the David Yellin College of Education for a bachelor’s degree. She is a member of the Hebrew Writers Association and the Israeli Writers Association in the state of Israel. In 2014, Cohen Shabtai also participated in a Norwegian documentary about poets’ lives called The Last Bohemian – Den Siste Bohemien, and screened in the cinema in Scandinavia. By 2020, her fourth book of poetry will be published, also in Norway. Her literary works have been translated into many languages as well.

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.

 

— Tali Cohen Shabtai

 

* A well-known Israeli poet and editor.

 

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