Notness

<p>This sequence of one hundred sonnets was composed between 1967 and 2013. The title Notness is an anagram of the word 'Sonnets'. The word 'Metaphysical' in the subtitle is I hope a pointer to some of the tendencies and intentions in and surrounding the title. The only further key - or rather hint - that I think needs to be offered here is that the so-called 'core' of isness is notness just as at that of notness is isnesss: a never-ending dance. Others more adept at quieting the buzzing mind will know a good deal more about this than I do. (Richard Berengarten) </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>A tremendous piece of work a rare achievement. Berengarten belongs to the great tradition of Jewish poets that embraces Mandelstam and Celan. These remarkable sonnets are surely destined to endure. - ANNE STEVENSON </p><p><br></p><p>A metaphysical dancing floor a choreography of shadows out of the play of light between life and death. A triumph of poetry over the formidable obstacles of time. - SEBASTIAN BARKER </p><p><br></p><p>These poems stand against the anti-metaphysical prejudice of our age. Each sonnet is like a crystalline vessel in which some rare and precious liquid has been distilled. - RODERICK MAIN </p><p><br></p><p>An extraordinary collection. Rooted in the Lurianic Kabbalah Notness confronts the shadow-play of being and nothingness even as it seeks to repair the world. - PAUL PINES </p><p><br></p><p>Intellectual seriousness is irrigated with wit and sustained with astonishing technical resourcefulness. A remarkable work mind-opening and intellectually and emotionally challenging. - CARL SCHMIDT </p><p><br></p><p>These are poems which give contemplation to the very in-being of life its personal folds of love birth and death. A genuine triumph. - A. ROBERT LEE </p><p><br></p><p>From a mind humming with thought we experience intimations of what lies before or beyond the verbal. And fourteen lines often appear to contain the world. - PASCHALIS NIKOLAOU </p><p><br></p><p>A remarkable achievement. This is 'Metaphysical poetry' of the highest order. It deals with the always ramifying and unfathomable mystery of our being. - MALCOLM GUITE</p><p><br></p><p>The energy released by these poems is deposited into the hands of the reader where like a valuable metal it invites and awaits transformation into further moulds and patterns. - MARIA FILIPPAKOPOULOU </p><p><br></p><p>In these intricately linked sequences Berengarten demonstrates his unique ability to renew poetic traditions through strategies of integration rather than rejection. - PAUL SCOTT DERRICK </p><p><br></p><p>These sonnets are astonishing for their range and technical mastery. Wonderful poems. - HENRY WEINFIELD </p><p><br></p><p>Real life these poems persuade us is a string of pebbles of inexplicable formed encounters on the beach of a space-time continuum which at once alienates us from these shared visions and grants us them. - CATHERINE PICKSTOCK</p><p><br></p>