Mordechai Geldman

Mordechai Geldman (; 16 April 1946 – 8 October 2021) was an Israeli poet, non-fiction writer, artist, art critic and curator, and psychologist. His poems were translated into many languages, including the collection Years I Walked at Your Side published in 2018 by SUNY Press. He received awards including the Bialik Prize for his life achievements.

Biography Geldman was born at a displaced persons camp in Munich to Polish parents who had survived the Holocaust. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he lived ever since.

Geldman's poetry is philosophical, psychological and existentialistic. It combines literary Hebrew and everyday language, even using some slang. His later poetry tends to be meditative and includes many haiku, influenced by Zen Buddhist aesthetics and philosophy. His poetry has many aspects, including lyrical, philosophical, sensual, erotic, religious and ironic. and was one of the first Israeli poets to write explicit homo-erotic poetry in the 1970s.

He was a representative of poetry from Israel at international events such as the Biennale of Poetry in Liège, Belgium, in 1995, the Israeli Cultural Season in France in 1998, the Second Tokyo Poetry Festival in 2011, and the poetry festival in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2019.

Geldman died of cancer at age 75.

Zvika Nir, the chairman of the Writers' Association, summarised:

quote|Mordechai Geldman was a poet with a unique and extraordinary voice. Brave, daring, who did not hesitate to reveal his life, loves and looks in his many years of poetry. His language of poetry was a work of thought of the various stages of the Hebrew language embedded in pearls of world poetry, especially European and Western poetry for the generations he knew well. As a psychologist and analyst, he has been engaged in new artistic endeavors all his life and in recent years has also devoted himself to the types of Japanese poetry. He was also a multidisciplinary artist, engaged in painting and drawing, photography and sculpture. In addition, he also wrote prose and especially books of thought and study in which he pointed out the system of connections between literature and psychoanalysis. Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Writers (1996) Bialik Prize for his life achievements (2010) Tamir's Poems (2007), under the pseudonym Daniel Kasif Years I Walked at Your Side (2011), in 2 volumes. A wide collection from Geldman's poetry books and new poems. Becoming One (2013) Night Line (2015) Years I Walked at your Side (2019), 3rd volume. A collection from Geldman's poems written 2013–2019 Crescent on a Boat (Haiku collection) (2019) Teoria Do Um (תורת הייחוד) (2016), in 2 volumes. Translated to Portuguese by Joao Paulo Esteves Da Silva. Portugal: Douda Correria Years I Walked at Your Side (2018), a collection from Geldman's poetry. Translated to English by Tsipi Keller. Excelsior Editions, State University New York Press Wine on Ice, English poems, Demer Press (Netherlands), 2021

Non-fiction Dark Mirror (1995) Psychoanalytic Criticism (1998) Eating Fire, Drinking Fire (2002) The True Self and the Self of Truth (2006) In the Silver Mirror: Bianca Eshel Gershuny (2007) Mirrors and Doubles: Shakespeare as a psychoanalyst (2019)

Catalogues Sharon Landscapes: Helen Berman (2009) Dad's Bird: Naomi Brickman (2012) The Source of Light: Einan Cohen (2015)

Prose Neighbours and Other Perverts (2014)