deeply involved with the recent and troubled history of both the jewish people and the state of isreal, these great poems uncover, touch , and may help in healing some of the most painfull human scars known to all immigrants, all victims, all of us feeling unsafe in our own home , already marked as the targets of the next war. with humor, eye for detail and compassion, "in my skin" carries a rare urgency, lacking from most poetry written today. reading it, you might find that you've been exposed beneath your own skin more than you were willing to.

"Fashion

is a way

of loving the body

or hating

its parts."

From this short poem we can see that we are rather in female territory, the looker in me wants to know what do women have to do with clothes. It's all here, the love of clothes and the love of nakedeness, clothes that remember, clothes wishing to forget, clothes looking forward and looking east. This is the journey around a woman's clothes in 80 pages.

Women will identify with many of the poems here, men may be able to understand better their ladies.

Karen Alkalay-Gut is the best English writing poet in Israel today, and also one of the best Israeli poets in any language. Zionism and the imposing of the Hebrew language has left her in a marginal place, unjustly. Alkalay is Israeli to the core, in spite of writing in English. A real poet to discover and cherish. Go for it.