Rhetoric of Prayer – an article about the book “Daughter of God” and the Poetry of Iris Calif, Written by: Delice
The Article translated from Hebrew to English by Yarden Zehavi
the poems and the Literary quotes (from the poems) translated into English by Iris Calif
All rights to the poems and literary quotations from the poems within the article are reserved to the poet Iris Calif
Hymns as prayers of praise to the divine power; Iris Calif
Iris Calif’s poetry is like religious poetry, the writing terminology is aimed at the rhetoric of prayer. The poet combines verses, parts of verses, idioms, and sayings that originate from the Bible, weaves them together and juxtaposes them with phrases and idioms from her own imagination, which are also written in a sophisticated language, style, and biblical semantics. The writing is conveyed in a stream of consciousness that seems to stem from a dream, from a conversation with a world beyond, with angels, from channeling, from a vision, from being a living-being who believes in God as the creator of the world and as one who possesses a superior ability that governs the entire universe. Already on the first page, as an introduction, there appears a drawing related to a ritual of Jewish mysticism, showing Stars of David, lions, and magical folkloristic graphics.
Also the name of the book, “Daughter of God”, hints at its contents, at a narrative that encompasses religious meanings. So do many of the names of the poems: God, Daughter of the Worlds, Daughter of God, The Wind of the Spirit of the Halo Desert Religions, The Halo of the Heavenly Garden of God, Daughter of the Living, The Spirit of the Holy Mirror of the Worlds, The Holy Flower of the Halo Rivers of God, In My Blood God Will Call for the Holy Love, The Creator of the Worlds the Blessed name; God, Roots of the Holy Heaven, The God of Judgement of the Holy Hidden Garden of Night, God; Lord of the Worlds Will Call Within Me the Halo Fire of Life in the Holy Desert, etc.
The poems are presented as as hymns, as prayers, the essence of which is praise to the divine power, thanks-giving, praise, and glorification of God. The same goes for the sublime forces of nature, which are the creations of God, with whom the poet has a dialogue. God reveals himself in the physical world through all the elements of the universe and nature, about which she writes and which she details: the sun, the moon, darkness, light, earth, heavens, stars, flood, fire, rivers, light, creation.
The texts are sometimes paralleled and linked to familiar religious blessings (Seven Blessings, for example). In the poem on page 9, “Daughter of the Worlds”, Iris Calif quotes a large section from the Song of Ascents (Shir HaMa’aloth) in Psalms: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from…”. Attached to it is a poem that also opens with another quote from the morning prayer: “Creator of the world, I am grateful before you / I am the Iris daughter of Adam daughter of Eve / Daughter of Azriel Isaac daughter of Mary / Daughter of life / Daughter of the worlds / Daughter of God”.
Iris Calif uses terms from religious worship and the Jewish faith arsenal to create an atmosphere. She expands on terms, combining terms from different regions to give them a new meaning that is personally connected to her. Page 7:
GOD; LORD OF ALL WORLDS OF THE LAND AND HEAVENS – IRIS CALIF
God; Lord of all worlds of the land and heavens
Our Father in Heaven
In the sacred godly love; a wind of existence
And in the bible of the divine holy land
Soul
God
Eternity of Israel; Praise the savior
Lord of all the land
King of the Angels of the World
In signs and wonders you crowned me
And in ancient worlds in the bible the kingdom of life surrounded me
The treaty of the Iris of God
Daughter of Zion
Daughter of the prophets
Daughter of the desert
Daughter of the rain
Daughter of the field
Daughter of wheat
Daughter of the sun
Daughter of the night
Daughter of the living
And the heavens skies are alive
And in the priestly breastplate of dust of the moon’s trumpets
God will hear my voice
Blood of my body
And in my Iris soul;
Holy Worlds
Ancient worlds
Heavenly spiritual worlds
All rights within reserved to the poet Iris Calif©️
Also in the poem on page 89, “From the mountain a human being will arise,” there is a quote from The Shema prayer “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One”. The poet compresses body-soul-spirit factors into one human package:
From the mountain a human being will arise – Iris Calif
A human being; in the breath of life of the Sacred Spirit; created
In the silence of his soul’s world, he shall ascend unto the sanctuary of love; the homeland
The land of deer
And in the sanctuary of night, the guarding of Zion walks, standing tall
In the Land of the Divine Oath
Blessed; Anointed with the grace of the Land of Milk and Honey
They shall whisper their Heaven prayers
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God
Creator of all worlds
And in the Land of the Covenant, from the mountain a human being will arise
For the holy revival of the Promised Land here he is, a steadfast human being of spirit Courage of valor
Naked in the harvest of a field of acacias (trees), hurt and burnt, walks in the light upon the path faith with heart courage
On the shores of life, the blood of his love is buried in the land of the forefathers
And in the embrace of the valley of his eyes the halo of the holy land will shine
And in the Sacred grace of land of Canaan; the holy sons of God
And in the living Land of breath of life; the spirit of the human being
All rights within reserved to the poet Iris Calif©️
The poem contains distinct traditional motifs: sanctuary, guardian of Zion, land of deer, man of valor, land of the fathers, land of the saints, children of God, Canaan, in the image of God, spirit of man. All of these serve as creators of religious ritual.
The iris flower is mentioned in many poems as a metaphorical equivalent to the poet herself, in her name – Iris. Page 15 “Human Iris” – “God / In the Living halo of heaven’s candlesticks is my blue gold burning candle Flame / As Iris a human flower I am inflaming my heaven dance to the human moon / And in pure wilderness of desert wild ashes / A Life; / And the days gather the spirit soul of the angel of my life / Creates my human Iris flower heart / To the holy land of the heaven wind”. The poet constructs her dance performance as a burning candle, small and minor, but present in its light, before the powerful nature. The performance is depicted through original images, which create a kind of pyrotechnic setting that releases heat, light, and smoke. Candles, which may be fireworks, lightning, or meteors, light up in the sky, and the moon gives its glow, and some desert wind blows, adding sound. This audiovisual performance is interpreted as a religious purification ritual, a purification ritual.
On page 54, “Rivers of Irises,” the image of Iris returns again as a parallel to the poet’s name:
Rivers of Irises – Iris Calif The
In front of the roses of my lunar nights you stand silenced in the veil of love
And in the crown of your fragrance, naked in your gates, bleeding my body
Floating to your image; to the black of your pupils
My Dreamy Moon
I am the human flower; Iris of the Golan
In the land of my kingdom, I anoint myself to the flame land of your shoulders
That tie my breath in the Hermon of love
The spirit wind reigns in my golden -green eyes and the garden rises with the sunrise whispered spells
Lord of the worlds, Our father in heaven;
I shed the voice of my silence
I who apply perfume to love in silvery shadows
Stir my stem to the silence that trade my tears in the phantom days
My beloved
And in the autumn of my prayers enchants me Venus (planet)
crowns my life to the naked wind that storms your life
In the rivers of irises
All rights within reserved to the poet Iris Calif©️
The style of prayer, the song, is also present here. A quote from the sources, an appeal to God, the spirit as an ideological background, and above all, a request for love. The request for love, both physical and spiritual, runs throughout the poetry. The image of the body and nudity as a pure-primordial-primary motif is also included in the poetry, sometimes as an ethos that resides in a dry and distant desert. In the poem “Vines of Life” on page 88: “To God king of the world / In the desert of the spirit the corals of my body guide to the angels of heaven / To the secrets of mercy in the tabernacles of your prayers Creator to my life / The glow / And in the writings of Love / I am naked, cloak of your twists in the desert sheets / In a piece of land the flame of my dreams burns / And with the silver of your body the drops of my heart mold the rivers in your life / Blessed be the Creator who establishes the rain for the poems of heaven / Sanctuary by the grace of love / And the sun carries my Torah is in the mountain of your breath / In the image of the world to the vines of life I mix the love of your wine / And from wine I am wet / To the angels of heaven / My body is lighting up”. And in the poem “ The God of Judgement of the Holy Hidden Garden of Night“ on page 100 these lines appear: “And in the frost of my eyes the silenced spirit wind conquers and undresses the muslin of my dress / In the river of your breaths, naked I merge the life within me in the vineyards of your arms / I flow to God / Voice / My heart”.
Also the physical act of love, as well as the naked body, which appears frequently in poetry, is intertwined with the work of the Creator as something complementary, as a builder of unity.
Iris Calif has a long conversation with angels. Raphael, Yekutiel, Uriel, the angels of life, the angel of water. On page 82 “Uriel / Angel sent from above / Illuminates to the blue spirit / Seen through the cloud chariots / Wrapped in the embrace of silence in the warmth of the worlds like a sacred river”. And on page 49 “My heart / Michael guardian of the wings of the land hero of God / In the world’s shades your praises are pure”. on page 31 in the poem “The Halo of the Heavenly Garden of God”: “As a rock sparrow (bird) in flight / I sing my heart out to your senses / I silence the sound of rivers to your image / Yekutiel angel sent from above in my life / With an imaginary ember he strums the breeze of my agony / Unifying my freedom for a piece of the silent sun / The rain stomps life in the tree of my breaths / And in the halo of the heavenly garden of God / The earth opens up the dances of my body”.
The stream of consciousness bursts forth from a mystical inner world and sometimes it takes time to decipher, to arrange chronologically, to connect all the figures of speech, the images, the idioms, the innovative words. On page 13 “God’s Moon”:
GOD’S MOON – IRIS CALIF
TONIGHT; THE VOICE OF GOD’S MOON RISES AND THE NILE ANGELS ARE CARRYING
THE HOLY DAWN OF MY BODY
In the river the boundaries of the holy anomaly
To the hidden Spirit
For a winter fast, the universe of my steps will be stride
“Lord of armies” “King of honor”
The God of the Worlds, The Creator of the Living
My blowing voice is distinguished by the twilight of Your holy Torah
Waking up in the soul of the land
Savior of existence in the exhalation of the righteous
The night exceeds love affairs in the delight of darkness
To my naked body at the Silence the Stars
Crossing a mountain of heaven
And in the fields of the golden wind of the mysterious angels.
My breathe is alien
On God’s Moon
Kneeling my dream
Spreading like a seed of the juniper
In the sands of anomaly
All rights within reserved to the poet Iris Calif©️
Indeed, as the poet herself writes, there is a certain anomaly, a built-in disarray, in her spiritual environment. And also a certain distance, a certain foreignness, that must be gathered and brought together. Iris Calif builds a new arsenal of words. She plays with words, takes an accepted root and changes the grammar, the syntax. An entire study could be published about the topic. This poetry is not flowing poetry, it’s poetry that is paused for the sake of understanding, for the sake of examining the words and their meaning within the conceptual framework, for the sake of formulating the entire context. There is an idea in every sentence that is composed of many motifs, there’s a powerful private experience, there’s a grandiose emotional show, there’s a sacred atmosphere. Every word is understandable, but within the sentence an enigma is created, and some investigation and examination are required. There may be a desire to be drawn into the unknown experience, and on the other hand, there may be an escape from dealing with the high, quasi-biblical language, and from the congestion of deliberately cumbersome images. When we enter the world of Calif, we open ourselves to a whole, different world, full of mysticism, instinct, passion, faith. There is the ‘self’ and there is the ‘I’, the I (nothing) is the shell, the ‘self’ (bone) is the core. In this poem, the terms body, spirit, and soul are distinguished. Terms that are open to discussion.
The book “Daughter of God” was published by Hadarim (Rooms) Publishing House in 2020.
About the poet Iris Calif
Iris Calif, is an international poet, dancer, editor and translator, was
born and lives in Israel. She is in charge of foreign relations in the onlin culture, literature, art and poetry magazine “The Direction of the
Spirit Wind” (“Bekiovn Hroh”) a translator and an editor of world-wide
poetry in the magazine and editor of international anthologies at the
magazine, as well as in the culture and lifestyle magazine “Mokasini” and
in the “World Poetry” section on the literature website “Rooms”
(“Hadarim”) She is also a member of the Composers’ Association of Hebrew authors and publishers in Israel named “ACUM”.
Iris is received of the International Prize for Literature Italy – Milan 2024: ‘CITY OF GALATEO’ Special award for excellence ‘città del Galateo’ in the category of foreign writers from around the world, poetry and fiction on a free topic, for the poem she wrote “Angel of Life”.
Iris received the 2023 award for International Best Poets & POETS:
THE JOURNAL OF RENDITION OF INTERNATIONAL POETRY- IPTRC [Multilingual] CHINA.
Iris Winner of the International Friedrich Schiller Literary Competition 2025, GERMANY — The International Literary Association ‘CREATIVE TRIBUNE’.
Awarded an Honorable Mention for unique writing with a profound emotional impact on the reader, for her poem ‘The Desert Bride’
she was selected- to be one of the “20 Top International Journalists for the year 2024 of Legacy Crown’s” -ASIA. She also holds a diploma from the “Russian Professional Writers Union” and the international magazine “Arina NN”, registered in the Ministry of Culture of Russia, for her contribution to the culture world “International Poetic Community” 2022.
Iris is the head of the Israeli liaison department of the Hong Kong Literature and Arts Magazine and a member of the Association of artists and writers of the World SAPS. She takes part in the editorial board of the World Poetry Yearbook 2024 (English edition) and holds an honorary doctorate from the International Forum for Creativity, Humanity and Coexistence, Kingdom of Morocco.
Iris is a descendant of a lineage of Kabbalists, blessed with the prophecy of the spirit of the heart and the ability of communication and vision, which are expressed in her mystical and Kabbalistic writing, endowed with spiritual touches of holy upper worlds.
Three of Iris’s books have already been published: “In a Mysterious magical path Lolita breathes” (2001), “A Pure Wild moon” (2017), and “The daughter of God” (2020), and she is currently working on her fourth book. Her poems have been published and read on the radio, on television, on the internet, in national and international magazines and newspapers and in anthologies around the world, and were translated by international poets into numerous languages such as Spanish, Bengali, Nepali, Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, Assamese, Russian, Albanian and Italian.
Iris’s poems were presented in many prestigious and international exhibitions in Israel, the most famous among them is the universal exhibition “Butterflies of Peace,” which was presented in June 2024,
The exhibition featured many of Iris’s poems, alongside her works translated by international poets into Chinese, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic, as well as the poems of 21 poets from various countries around the world translated into Hebrew by Iris
Iris’s poetry reflects the inner journey of her soul, which looks through love, dreams of life and breathes holy and hidden worlds. Her poetry is a symbol and an expression of her victory over anorexia and her courageous decision to choose life and love.
Abou About the author:
Delice is Writer, poet, and literary critic. Writes review lists for various magazines: Moznaeem (Scales), Apyrion (Canopy), Hamisdaron (The Corridor), Psipas (Mosaic) and more
Has published: seven poetry books, two prose books – short stories.
Soon a book of critical essays published in newspapers over 40 years will be released
For years, she has been writing her impressions of poems in the “A Poem of My Taste” section of the magazine “Psipas”. Her pen name is “Delice”, and she signs her articles and poems under that name. She is a member of the Writers’ Association committee, serves as chairman of the committee of accepting members to the Association of Writers in Israel, and is a member of ACUM. She manages and hosts creative writing workshops, hosts and organizes literary events at Naamat, Bait Hasofer, Wizo, and in libraries. For years, she has been hosting the literary program ‘First Imprint’ (‘First Glufa’), in which she hosts writers and artists for a personal interview on the occasion of the release of their book and she has been organizing and hosting the Zoom literature events of the Ono Academic College.
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