The Legacy of a Young Poet

December 2020

Bar Sagi

For the second year, Voices Israel Group of Poets in English is opening a Young Poets Competition to perpetuate the memory of a talented young poet, the late Bar Sagi, who tragically passed away at the age of 15.

Born in Rehovot, her family took her to the United States during her first school years and she returned with a perfect command of English.

In a short biography by Aharon Sagi, Bar's paternal grandfather, he describes her as "a girl of light. Whenever she arrived the place was immediately filled with joy.

"She loved horse-riding and sports and singing but her greatest delight came from reading. She would say that when you open a book you enter into a strange and wonderful world.

"Her own stories were full of imagination and good humor but her poetry expressed her suffering and despair."

For, tragically at the age of 11 she was diagnosed with bone cancer, and the next four years of her short life were spent fighting the disease, enduring painful and debilitating treatments until she succumbed at the age of 15.

After her death, the family found a collection of poems, See Me Soar and Spread My Wings, poems about hope and yearning. It was later published by Gvanim, Tel Aviv in 2018, beautifully illustrated by Ellie Makarimanov and Anna Melnikov.

Bar's grandparents, Denise and Anthony Joseph, decided on behalf of the family to sponsor the Bar Sagi Young Poets' Competition, to encourage other young talented poets to expose their work. There was an enthusiastic response to the 2020 competition administered by Voices Israel Poetry in English Group, and the family decided to continue and sponsor the second one for 2021.

The competition is open to all schoolchildren aged 12 to 19 who write poems in English. Three poems will be selected and awarded cash prizes. They will be read at a prize-winning ceremony and will later be published in the 2021 Voices anthology. Poems must be unpublished and be no more than 41 lines. The opening date for submission was 15th November 2020 and the closing date is 15th January 2021. The competition has approval from the Ministry of Education, and teachers of English throughout the country are being asked to encourage their students to enter.

Submissions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Details of entry on the website: www.Voicesisrael.com/bar-sagi-prize

More information about the competition:

Susan Bell: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About the author

Wendy Blumfield

Wendy Blumfield was born in London. There she started a career in publishing and feature writing but when she moved out of the city she completed London University extramural studies in Social Psychology and trained with the National Childbirth Trust to teach and counsel pregnant women and new parents.

In 1974 she came to live in Israel from Fleet, Hampshire to Haifa with her husband and four small children.

In Israel she co-founded the Israel Childbirth Education Center, trained new counselors and started working both in her private studio, Rambam Hospital and in community centers. She co-ordinated the childbirth preparation courses for the Students Union at the Technion.

Parallel to this, she continued writing freelance for Israeli and overseas journals. Her book, "Life After Birth – Everywoman’s Experiences of the First Year of Motherhood," was published in the UK, translated into Spanish and Russian, and her anthology, "The Soldiers` Mother", was published in Israel by Bibliobooks. She has been writing poetry all her life in extreme situations of joy and stress and is on the Board of Voices Israel Group of Poets in English.

Her late husband David was a retired computer systems analyst and she has eleven grandchildren.

Author's recent posts

Comments

No comments made yet. Be the first to submit a comment