A clock moves back and forth rhyth­mi­cal­ly in a home, announc­ing the moments of life mov­ing toward death; then comes a scene of lovers clutched togeth­er in love. Is this a moment of beau­ty? It would seem so, ​“their hearts explod­ing simultaneously/​indivisible…” Then enters stark real­i­ty jet­ti­son­ing roman­tic rumi­na­tions: ​“at the Megid­do juncture/​in a hor­ri­fy­ing clap of thun­der, life and death are as one/​annihilating love along with any aes­thet­ic judg­ment.” The poems with­in these pages unite ​“the Moth­er­land” (Israel) and women, divid­ed into the seg­ments of ​“There are Wars,” ​“Oasis,” ​“Knife in the Ribs,” and ​“The Heart’s Field of Stub­ble.” These are poems about love and hate, war and peace — all abid­ing togeth­er with­out the usu­al dichotomies.

Con­sid­er the beau­ty of ​“Red­bud in Dalia”: “…from where I stand,/the hills of Ephraim arch/​like her young firm breasts/​and a stub­born woodpecker/​hammers at the heart/​of a world that remains/​bright as a diamond/​and as impen­e­tra­ble.’ Moshe Dor reach­es into the heart, enabling the read­er to expe­ri­ence what it’s like to live with the land, peo­ple, and sig­nif­i­cant events as an Israeli.