Tel Aviv - 17.4.25
It has been far too long since I’ve sat in a cafe with a friend in Tel Aviv, but just an hour or two with Sabine at Nechama’s reminded me that there is something absolutely unique about the people, the place, the atmosphere. It looks like people are just shmoozing and some of them are, but there’s such a vibrant atmosphere that it gives me a desire to create, to grow, to develop.
But then we went to the poetry session at the documentary film festival and every clip was so fake, so pretentious, and so self-conscious I wanted to drag the poet-film makers out to the streets to connect with something real. It’s like poetry has lost its center. They had technique, feeling, and no connection with an audience.
Can’t get it out of my head ~ your experience with the poetry session at the documentary film fest. I keep wondering if part of the problem might be that poetry is like classical chamber music…which has always been best appreciated in a more intimate setting.? Just a thought.
Here, I sometimes go to independent bookstores/cafes to hear poetry read by published poets associated with Scott Williams (mathematics professor emeritus of Buffalo University), himself a poet. Sometimes we even do ‘open mic’. But somehow it feels more like a family event.? Many years ago, when informing a long-time friend in Rochester about some famous cellist giving an upcoming recital at the War Memorial said, “Ugh! Can you imagine?! It’s gonna be like playing for a football field!”