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Contests : Margaret Reid Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2007 : High Distinction
NIGHT IN THE NORTH
Here in the North
Night settles gently
in a crystal sky
a gradual ballet
a slow cascade
a pastel procession
observed through sleepy eyes
of hyrax, fox and deer,
apple, cherry and the many forest trees
now solstice approaches
Night is less
she compensates for this
by her slow approach,
deliberate, dramatic,
the actress taking her place on stage
as light reverently steps aside
and the stars applaud her entrance,
sparkling with pleasure
on the horizon
the moon rises golden, elegant
released from invisibility,
it beams in satisfaction
and here we stand looking down
from a mountain's ledge,
as Night covers fields and orchards,
fishponds and flowers
with her velvet black blanket
and all disappears beneath it
as if on command
bats and owls swoop silent
jackals howl
stars and moon light our way home
here in the North
at the edge of the world
where time is eternal
and only the cycle of
daylight and darkness
reminds us
of youth's passing
This poem won a High Distinction award in the 2007 Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books. Author Helev Bar-Lev received a $100 award. Winning Writers assists this contest. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About Helen Bar-Lev
Helen Bar-Lev was born in New York City in 1942. She has lived in Israel for 36 years. She holds a degree in Anthropology from California State University, Northridge, 1972. Since 1976 Helen has devoted herself to art: painting, teaching and writing poetry. From 1989 until 2001 she was a member of the Safad Artists' Colony in the Upper Galilee where she had her own gallery. In January 2007 she and Johnmichael Simon moved to Metulla, the northernmost town in Israel.
To date Bar-Lev has participated in 80 exhibitions, including 30 one-person shows. She was the curator of the widely acclaimed Homage to Yosef Hirsch exhibitions (appearing in 3 venues) in 2002 and 2003 in which 53 of Hirsch's former students participated. Her poems and paintings have appeared in many online journals such as The Other Voices International Project; The Coffee Press Journal; Boheme Magazine; The Poetry Bridge; Sketchbook; River Bones Press; The Hypertexts; Palabras-Press; Poetry Super Highway, etc., and also print publications including Meeting of the Minds Journal;, Voices Israel Anthologies; Manifold Magazine of New Poetry (U.K.); Lucidity Poetry Journal; Across The Long Bridge and Sailing in the Mist of Time, both anthologies of award-winning poetry from the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest and the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest; Harvest International; Poesy first international issue; For Loving Precious Beast, An Anthology of Poetry edited by Yolanda Coulaz; Ibbetson Street 21; The Rogue Scholars, June 2007.
A book entitled Cyclamens and Swords with poems of Israel by Helen and Johnmichael Simon has been published by Ibbetson Press of Boston, Mass. and may be ordered from the authors at hbarlev@netvision.net.il. It is also available via Lulu.com. Her watercolour paintings and sketches are featured throughout the book.
Helen is a member of Voices Israel English Poetry Society and The Israel Artists' and Sculptors' Association, of the Canadian Federation of Poets and Canadian Poetry Association. She is the global correspondent in Israel for the Poetry Bridge and Editor-in-Chief of the Voices Israel annual Anthology.
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