Poet as Fish, by Ann Bar-Dov

Photograph by the author, Ann Bar-Dov.

​Poet as Fish
​
Poem as fish.
Turn it one way, iridescent dream glitter.
Tip it the other, blank matte scales.
Hold it out away from you – just a fish,
Silhouette of a fish,
An object in the world
Backlit against the sun.
Concrete outline of abstract idea:  fish.
 
So: Poem as fish
And poet as fish.
 
Turn me one way, I shine.
Turn the other, dreaming daze.
Backlit against the blaze, an idea
And then the finite presence in the world:
Poet as fish
And I am one, I am that
Poet, I am that
fish.

Ann Bar-Dov

Poet's note:  "This poem is dedicated to the painting of a fish on the side of a building, part of an advertisement for a fish store on a kibbutz.  The building stands on the side of the Kiryat Shemona - Tiberias road, near the Koach Intersection.  Every scale on the fish is separately coloured in, for a total shimmery effect. The painting has been there for at least twenty years, and it is now rather weather-beaten, but it still is an amazing piece of folk art."

After 42 years' residence in Israel, former Brooklynite Ann Bar-Dov can finally say that she writes poetry in both English and Hebrew.