Yoav J. Tenembaum

Poet, Journalist and Political Analyst

Yoav J. Tenembaum was born in Argentina. He has lived in Argentina, Israel, the United States, Spain and Britain. He has pursued his academic studies at Tel Aviv University (BA in History), Cambridge University (Masters in International Relations) and Oxford University( Doctorate in Modern History). He served in the past as director of a historical exhibition on Columbus and the Jewish contribution to the voyages of discovery (Spain and Israel). He's the author of The Planet of Mendaoor, a book for children, published by Minerva Press, London. He is also a journalist and political analyst. His poems have been published in ForPoetry, Tryst, Promise and Poetic Voices.

For Yoav Tenembaum poetry is silence through words. The only way silence can have its say; the words we would never utter, but we would ever write; the only stage on which our feelings and thoughts would appear with their own-made script, without even a hint of shyness. In the same vein, he sees poetry as the unshed tear, which can only be shed on paper, in the innermost experience of poetry writing.

Yoav Tenembaum wrote his first poems when he was twelve years old. Later on, while being a student at Oxford, he started writing short stories. He returned to the writing of poetry a few years ago, and it has now been transformed into his main literary passion and principal vehicle of emotional expression.

His favorite short-story writer is Somerset Maugham. The best short-story he has ever read was H. G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind." He has always enjoyed the poetry of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, particularly his various odes. He finds the poetry of the Israeli poet Haim Gury very appealing for its simplicity of structure and language.

The same, in a sense, may be said about the poetry of Yehuda Amihai, the late Israeli poet. Subtle in nature, some of the concepts, and metaphors in his poems are particularly original and singularly creative. He likes the philosophical challenge entailed in the reading of the poems and stories of the late Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges.

Yoav Tenembaum finds intellectual and emotional fulfilment, beyond everything else, in writing — be it poems, articles or children’s stories.

Philosophical in nature — I find myself in a trance reading his poetry. Yoav holds the reader within metaphors of parallel grasps from beginning to end. A truly reflective journey.

Note: All material was contributed for this web site by the author, Yoav J. Tenembaum, 2004. Do not copy any poems without the author's permission — bridge@netvision.net.il

Selected Work ~