Agi Mishol was recently published in Haaretz newspaper, and the poems featured
   are a sample of the work Agi has produced so far as IIAS Artist in Residence.

   Here is a translation of the first poem, "The Poem – A Love Story":

   It starts out like a blind date, but after a few lines everyday routine is just something from
   which to return to that sheet of paper, if only to take a peek and make sure it’s really there,
   the secret I’m circling that has become the center. It’s all erotic, I copy it again and again
   to feel how its ink body is absorbed into the paper, I change a word, I erase a comma.
   I want to tell a friend about it, to look at it together, for her to say what she really thinks.
   But really. For us to read it aloud and listen to it. I can still quit, but only until the climax
   of the poem, the metaphor. At the spasm, I am already controlling emotions with the muscles
   of technique.