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)
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Intellectual seriousness is irrigated with wit and sustained with astonishing technical resourcefulness. A remarkable work, mind-opening and intellectually and emotionally challenging." - CARL SCHMIDT
"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
"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
"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
"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
"In these intricately linked sequences, Berengarten demonstrates his unique ability to renew poetic traditions through strategies of integration rather than rejection." - PAUL SCOTT DERRICK
"These sonnets are astonishing for their range and technical mastery. Wonderful poems." - HENRY WEINFIELD
"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
Berengarten, Richard: - Richard Berengarten (formerly known as Burns) was born in London in 1943, into a family of musicians. He has lived in Italy, Greece, the USA and Yugoslavia. His perspectives as a poet combine English, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. He deals equally with historical and political material, with inner worlds, and with relationships and everyday life. In the 1970s, he founded and ran the (now almost legendary) international Cambridge Poetry Festival. His work has been translated into 18 languages. In 2017, he was awarded the Xu Zhimo Silver Willow Award, for his 2016 book, 'Changing'.
