Hadassa Ben Ari: “Suddenly I Realized I Had Written a Horrible Word”
Israeli poet Hadassa Ben Ari shares the story behind her new book's opening love poem and the crucial word change she made just before publication, offering readers a literary mystery.
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Poet and author Hadassa Ben Ari, whose new book What Do You Know About Longing is drawing wide attention, has opened up about the personal story behind the love poem that introduces the collection and about the single word she decided to change just before the manuscript went to print.
In a candid post, Ben Ari recalled the moment she first began writing.
“People ask me who wrote the love poem that opens the book What Do You Know About Longing. What, can’t they see it’s me?” she wrote. “I started writing poems in second grade. The year was 1995. It was the night Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. I went up to my room and wrote a poem. And since then, really since that very night, I’ve been a writer.”
She explained that she revisited the opening poem many times over the years and felt at peace with every line, until the very last stage of editing.
“The poem was written a few years ago, and from time to time I would go back and read it. I was content with every word. But right before the book went to print, I suddenly realized: there’s a horrible word in here. And I had to change it. Maybe it reflects the processes I’m going through myself, and what love means to me. So I changed one word.”
To end, Ben Ari left her readers with a playful challenge:
“Who can guess which word it is? And for the truly attentive: what was the word before it? (Hint: Laura Doyle).”
Her revelation highlights not only the deeply personal nature of her writing, but also the evolution of her perspective on love and language, distilled into a single, carefully chosen word.