Wine on ice

Poems by Mordechai Geldman (Israel).


Mordechai Geldman was born in Munich to Polish parents who had survived the Holocaust. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he has lived ever since. Geldman studied world Literature, and Clinical Psychology and works as a psychotherapist using psychoanalytical methods.
Geldman, now one of Israel's major poets, has begun publishing poetry in 1966. His poetry is philosophical, psychological, and existential. It combines literary Hebrew and everyday language, even some slang. His later poetry tends to be meditative and includes many haiku. He was influenced by Zen Buddhist esthetics and philosophy. His poetry sings with many voices - lyrical, philosophical, sensual, erotic, religious, ironic and others. A sober mind integrates all these aspects of his personality.
He has published 19 poetry books, a book of short stories and 6 non-fiction books. A two volume collection of poems from his books was published in 2011. His last poetry book is the third volume of the collection of his poetry written till 2019. His poems were translated into many languages, Chinese and Japanese included. His book "Becoming One" was translated to Portuguese ("Teoria Do Um") and published in Portugal, 2017. A large collection of his poems in English was published in 2018 at Suny Press, State University of N.Y.
His non-fiction books deal with subjects as the self in psychoanalytic theories and in Yoga and Buddhism, psychoanalytic interpretation of literature, doubles and symmetries in Shakespeare's plays, his favorite Israeli poets and artists, etc.
As a visual artist Geldman is engaged in painting, ceramics and photography. Geldman was an art critic for the Israeli daily Haaretz, and curated exhibitions for many Israeli artists.
Awards: the Prime Minister Prize; the Brenner Prize for literature; the Amichai Prize; the Bialik Prize for Literature.