Ripening

New collection out:

'Ripening' presents Suttner as master craftsman who has skilled himself in the metier of turning biography into art. As a poet he believes that poetry lies all around in the trivialities of life and what is required is simply a poetic ear and an imaginative eye. As Amitav Ghosh wrote of Agha Shahid Ali, "he has a sorcerer's ability to transmute the mundane into magical".

(Moizur Rehman Khan, Co-Editor, Prosopisia Literary Journal)

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Some sample poems from Suttner's various collections:

I wish you a long life

It takes seven years to recover

from the shock of being born

it takes seven years to recover from giving birth

it takes seven years to recover from school

it takes seven years to recover from work

It takes seven years to recover

from relocation and emigration

it takes seven years to recover

from the deaths of loved ones

it takes seven years to recover

from being made redundant

it takes seven years to recover from divorce

it takes seven years to recover

from the realisation more's behind than ahead

so may you live

long enough to recover

(from "Becoming the Sea")

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When I was a young man

my father wanted to

place his hands on my head

and give me the blessing

Jewish fathers give to their sons:

"Eloheem yasimcha

keEfrayim oo cheMenashe...

May G-d make you

like Efraim and like Menasheh”

and I did not allow him

because I had formed

judgements about him

of the sort children, 

in the fog of youth,

form of their parents

and now that he has been

in the grave

and in my heart

eleven years

and I am older

and understand

I say to him:

forgive me

forgive me

forgive me

and I say to myself

forgive me

(from "Becoming the Sea") 

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Manofesto 

I love weekends, I love the week
I love to find, I love to seek 

I love the strong, I love the weak
I love the trough, I love the peak

I love the day, I love the night 

I love to snuggle, I love to fight 

I love the stand, I love the flight 

I love what’s wrong, 

I love what’s right 

I love what’s born, I love what dies 
I love what laughs, I love what cries
I love what limps, I love what flies
I love routine, I love surprise 

I love the short, I love the long
I love the right, I love the wrong
I love the silence and the song
I love what’s been here all along 

I love what loves, I love what hates
for all of them are passing states
are passing states upon the screen
of That which sees but is not seen

(from "Ripening")

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I place Imah on my right knee  
and love her  unconditionally  
place father on my left   
and love him  as he’d love to be  

and in this way  

I parent me

(from "Ripening") 

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Snapshut

at rites of passage, on family holidays
in amusement parks, museums and birthday parties
all over the over-developed world
tired parents
in the darkroom as to how
to connect to themselves
or their children
run after them
taking pictures
so that the present moment
missed over and over again
may be recorded for posterity

(from "Hidden and Revealed")

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Diaspora Fears

every now and then
like a man in an edgy crowd
who checks his pockets:
keys
wallet phone
I go online to make sure:

Israel (from "Hidden and Revealed")

 ________________

my mobile phone 

might be a goy 

doesn't recognise words 

like shabbos 

or oy 

( from my forthcoming collection "Glimmers")

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KORBAN OLAH [SACRIFICE]

the rabbi
(bachelor, available)
at the only shul
vaguely near me —
who prepares the food himself
for monthly communal dinners —

left the broccolini and
brussel sprouts
in the oven too long:

a burnt offering
pleasing to the Lord

from
https://judithmagazine.substack.com/p/ritual-emersion

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For people in South Africa who would like copies of any of myy, RRP is R120.00. Book can be picked up from Dunkeld West, Joburg.

Watch this space for details of the Australian launch in early March. 

In Australia book costs $25.00, including posting and packaging. Order via manosuttnerATgmailDOTcom, and make Paypal payment to same address.

For anwhere else in the world, including Israel, the UK, India and the US of A, cost is $35.00 including postage and packaging.  Order via manosuttnerATgmailDOTcom, and make Paypal payment to same address. Book can be posted after payment received via Paypal.  

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MORE REVIEWS

One piece in this collection speaks of keeping “one eye looking out and two eyes looking in.” That just about sums up these poems; the outer world is never lost while the inner is always doubly found. .... Ripening sings!

(Wayne-Daniel Berard, Editor, Windfall, a journal of spiritual poetry.)

I have always admired Immanuel’s writing. But nothing prepared me for the delights of his new collection, 'Ripening': the richness and wryness of the word play, the deeply poignant (yet never sentimental) play of emotions. The collection is aptly titled: Suttner's craft has ripened into maturity.

(Prof. David Medalie, Director of the Unit for Creative Writing at the University of Pretoria.)

Immanuel Suttner's poems overflow with humanity and feeling. But more than that — intimations of the metaphysical, history and identity, a sense of irony, playfulness. Reading them, I feel I am peering into the poet’s soul, and occasionally, tears well in my eyes.

(Mitchell James Kaplan, award winning author of novels By Fire, By Water, and The Unbounded Night.)