Are you looking for a poet who thinks that it's possible to be lucid, yet deep? Would you welcome verse that's NOT mired in political correctness or identity politics? A poetry that's not tethered to any particular movement? Would you like to read poetry in which spellbinding rhythms, lapidary language, fresh metaphors/associations, and interesting ideas are abundantly present? How about poetry that seeks for the sacred without being caught in outmoded religious thinking? If these are some things you'd like, Yacov Mitchenko is the poet for you.
Sophisticated without being pedantic, emotional without being sentimental, accessible yet multi-layered, mystical and well grounded, Mitchenko's poetry shows immense range. There are metaphysical poems (e.g. "Poem", "You Are Not Yourself"), poems about family (e.g. "Mother to Son", "For My Son", "Red Cottage Days"), wonderful nature poems (e.g. "Amsterdam Park", "March 22nd"), love poems (e.g "You're Lying There Still Asleep", "Because of You, in Light of You"), a meditative, philosophical sequence featuring the "Anonymous One", and poems which celebrate diversity, cultural or otherwise (e.g. "Despite Cultural Differences", "Poem For the World", "More Beautiful Differences"). Overall, Mitchenko's poetry is an attempt to engage with the world, with oneself, at a profound level.
