A review of Tali Cohen-Shabtai's Protest by Herojit Philem

Name of the Book: - PROTEST

Name of the Author: - Tali Cohen Shabtai

Genre: - Poetry

Year of Publication: - 2012

Publisher: - Iton 77 Publishing House, Tel Aviv, Israel 

ISBN: - 978-965-7351-79-6

Purchase link: Protest

Poet Tali Cohen-Shabtai was born in Jerusalem. Her first book 'The Black Ticket's contaminated crimson with woman" (2007) received much acclaim - "poetry that does not surrender easily,
it follows (observes) its own rules ... well aware of linguistic lore... a young, refreshing touch to Hebrew poetry, leaving one craving to taste more.."


Tali Cohen-Shabtai's second book, 'Protest' offers challenging poetics, protesting. Cohen-Shabtai places parts of sentences in clashing, disorientating relationships, testing - firstly - herself. In spite of the impossible, complex, conflicting existence, she writes in pain - but without fear.

The poems express a sense of exile - - both real and mental, and they form their own necessity. The words are needed constantly, they are the act itself. The conclusion arising as one reads the poems, as the poems stimulate one's intellect and challenge one’s perception of what poetry is, as they leave us astounded, is - as the poet says to herself: "you divert/from the nominative plural", and to us readers, "My language is not/your language, I regret any gesture."

But in fact, one does not regret any gesture at all, because reading Protest is nothing short of a moving experience.

Protest is a poetry collection by Tali Cohen-Shabtai. The book is divided into two sections; one being poetry written in Hebrew and the other being poetry written in English, and I will review the poetry written in English.

The English section of the book opens with the poem “Four years – in the – Country” and closes with “Such a therapist.” Tali Cohen-Shabtai’s poems are euphony and have great literary value with lots of subdued expression. Each poem speaks with powerful feeling which will drive readers to a state of ecstasy sometimes and at the other time the reader would be left to wonder the poems want to convey and that state of wonderment would make the reader keep reading.  

Some poems begin with lines that will make any reader continue to read the poem till it ends. Some such opening lines are “A poet is a type of clown who is placated with his pain” from the poem “Four years - in The – Country”.  “I play games in my mind - behind papers …..” from the poem “Such a therapist”. The poems not only open with beautiful catchy line but they would give a reader a kind of satisfaction after reading the poems. The lines of the poems are of different length, some lines have 14 syllables while some have just one syllable.

 

Like a poet buried under a deep feeling trying to awake every sense organ Tali Cohen-Shabtai expresses each poem with emotions that would make a reader of her book “Protest” experience an indescribable feeling.

There is used of sexuality so poetically, like in the line “……..By blank papers and faked orgasms” in the poem “Such a therapist” “To masturbate over a poem” in the poem Femme Fatale. The line “……to masturbate over a poem” suggest the speaker in the poem is being alienated or is being neglected by her love ones so she relies on herself instead of depending on other man. But if we go with the name of the book and the title of the book, the poem Femme Fatale is Protest against those people who pretend to know the speaker well.

In the poem Femme Fatale, the speaker enjoys being Femme Fatale who relies over herself and not over a man. She wants no man to provide any kind of assistance so she leaves no traces through which man can follow her.   This attitude of the speaker makes those pretending people wonder if her life is filled with more entertainment than theirs. But the fact is she is as ordinary as everyone who would show things that everyone would show to others. If those pretending people understand her, they can also know the taste of being Femme Fatale.

In the book Protest, I read poems which are very rare and unique. This book of poetry would give poetry lovers a new poetic taste. So, get a copy of it today and enjoy reading.