Poet and translator Peter Cole reveals that his intention is to yoke together beauty and terror. He says that he uses the devices of poetry – musicality, rhyme, meter – to convey the unbearable brutality of the 2014 Gaza war. In Hymns and Qualms: New and Selected Poems and Translations, Cole also writes about personal matters, such as hip replacement surgery. In addition, his poems tenderly contemplate the flowers that he has been growing in his Jerusalem garden for over 20 years.
Photo by Christopher Ho.
Read an excerpt from Hymns & Qualms.
Peter Cole: Hymns & Qualms
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