Days of Wonder: Poems by Samuel Peleg

Days of Wonder is a profoundly local book, offering a contemporary reflection of an intimate world with all its enchantments and afflictions. At the same time, it is a very universal work, engaging themes and tones that transcend place and time such as desire, love, anger, compassion, communication, and existential bewilderment. This collection of poems is arranged into five sections that trace a sequence of human states of being: from stone, through dust, kite, angel, and finally desire. The poems gathered within each section reflect the essence of the image under which they are classified. The book is both an attempt to find solace and an effort to discover a passage of escape from the madness and uncertainty of a fluid and unstable world. Peleg's poetry is distinctly lyrical. Through it, the poet seeks to define his identity both as a human being and as a writer. The elements composing the lyrical voice anchor it in a concrete and recognizable reality, constructing a complete worldview more commonly associated with fiction or realist drama. Personal identity is woven throughout the poems against the backdrop of a broad cultural inheritance from which it emerges. Muli Peleg's poems are deeply rooted in the poetry of his time. They are marked by a spirit of irony that continually accompanies emotional expression, almost foreshadowing, from the very inception of experience, its sorrowful end.