2010
Why I Do Not Write Israeli Love Songs
Why I Do Not Write Israeli Love Songs
Poetry
Mati Shemoelof
Nahar Sfarim, Binyamina, 2010
Language: Hebrew
Why I Do Not Write Israeli Love Songs is a poetry collection shaped by political anger, social protest and the refusal to separate poetry from the realities of Israeli society.
The poems confront inequality, racism, occupation, class and the political myths surrounding Israeli identity. Shemoelof writes in a direct and deliberately exposed language, refusing the expectation that poetry should remain outside politics.
At the same time, the collection questions the relationship between protest and poetry itself: what happens when a poem becomes a political act, and what happens when a poet refuses to turn away from the world in order to write about private love?
Reception
Mati Shemoelof’s collection Why I Won’t Write Israeli Love Poems received extensive critical attention following its publication in 2010. It was reviewed and discussed in leading Israeli newspapers, magazines, literary journals, radio and television programs, including Yedioth Ahronoth, Haaretz, NRG, Walla! Culture, Israel Post, Ynet and Channel 8. Critics described the book as “slim and precise” and wrote about Shemoelof’s poetry as a form of protest and political resistance. One review was titled “The Love Poems of a Black Panther,” while another asked, “Why Is Mati Shemoelof an Ashkenazi Poet?”
The title poem, “Why I Won’t Write Israeli Love Poems,” became one of Shemoelof’s best-known poems and continued to generate critical and educational discussion years after the book’s publication. The poem was the subject of an academic reading by Dr. Shlomo Hertzig, while educator and activist Osheret Zrihan wrote about its influence in 2018.
The book was also included in the Israeli state school curriculum, leading to a new edition published by Nehar Books in 2017. A digital edition followed in 2020. The poem “Language Buds” was included in A Naked Queen: An Anthology of Women’s Protest Poetry, edited by Dorit Weisman and published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad / Sifriat Poalim. Another poem, “My Father Is Dressed in Failure,” was published in Yedioth Ahronoth in January 2019.
The collection was also published in an ICAST edition and was translated and discussed internationally, including in the context of the Fusion – Big Bridge literary project.
The book generated strong and contrasting critical responses. Yehuda Vizan’s review in Walla Culture argued that Shemoelof’s political commitments dominate the collection, while also acknowledging his central position in contemporary cultural struggles.
Other literary discussions have emphasized the collection’s direct political language and its refusal to separate artistic expression from social criticism.
Selected poems
Book details
Title: Why I Do Not Write Israeli Love Songs
Original title: למה אני לא כותב שירי אהבה ישראליים
Author: Mati Shemoelof
Publisher: Nahar Sfarim
Year: 2010
Language: Hebrew
Genre: Poetry