Such amazing news I can’t help but share it with you. The sudden announcement that we freed 4 hostages was so surprising – we heard the names and identified them right away. It is as if we knew each one of them personally.
4 hostages freed! – 6.8.24 Read Post »
For so many years the fact that there was a building devoted to writers always amazed me. The building was for Hebrew Writers but for some years we created a bond that was international and interlingual. It has gradually frayed, this bond, and the building, more and more in debt, has to be demolished now to create an office building with – I hope – offices and a hall for the writers. But it will never be what it was.
In any case I really felt I had to say goodby to the building and launched a few of the books I’ve been ignoring for the past years. I gave away all the books I could – like a little potlatch in memory of those days….
last night at the Writers’ House – 6.7.24 Read Post »
Lots of people get very upset about the killing of Gazan children. I’m worried about something more basic. First, I don’t believe the numbers of children killed. The bodies keep repearing themselves. That relieves me. The thought of children being killed is horrifying. But what is worse is that these children have been brought up to war. Sleeping with stored bombs, taught Hebrew for “take down your pants” and “shut up”, dreaming murder, what kind of life are these children being offered? Children have to be kept alive and provided with a future. If I believed in prayer I would pray for them.
Gazan Children – 6.7.24 Read Post »
How to celebrate in such a dangerous world? Ezi can do it. For the first time ever he agreed to a party – not just one party, but two. All the stops are being pulled out – new underwear and all.
While we’re working on the video for his party we’re seeing the whole history of Israel – the building, guarding, protecting, worrying, rejoicing. Everyone his age had something to do with the building of this country, and the stories of everyone today are a part of the continued survival. If I go through the people I know, I think I can cover almost all of what’s happening.
Even my old Arabic teacher is an example of the complexities of the country. (We studied with her for over a year, but I wasn’t picking it up because my head wasn’t on right – I didn’t have the basic grammar that every native Hebrew speaker has. I’m only now beginning to understand it). But she, Sabreen Msarwi, was recently accused of siding with the enemy because she liked a facebook post long ago. I stick with her.
ezi’s eightieth -6.5.24 Read Post »
This afternoon at a panel on Whitman, the chair asked a question about poetry and war. And we all answered properly, about Whitman and Neruda and more. But I kept thinking about the unthinkable. I was thinking about the fact that soldiers in our army have other professions and hobbies and there could very well be poets like Owen or Sassoon who write and die in war. And when I got home the news came that the poet Amiram Cooper died in captivity.
I saw it last night but it didn’t hit me. An 85 year old poet from Nir Oz.
poetry and War – 6.4.24 Read Post »
I can’t bring myself to call my exiled friends whose homes are burning now. It will have to wait until morning. Who knows – maybe those houses have been saved. I know their hearts have burned up, though.
it’s beginning to look a lot like an agreement, a chance for both sides to lick wounds. The possibility of captives being returned, homeless able to rebuild their homes, and maybe work out an agreement to help create a palestinian state – should make me feel wonderful. But I don’t trust anyone or anything right now. I’d be happy to see some people out of the government, but I fear they have tasted power and have built up their own alternative militia.
agreement – 6.3.24 Read Post »
Starlight
My college boycotts Israel
now synonymous with
illicit power
post-Shoah
genocide
Hell
and Jewish
love
is starlight piercing
dross in a poisoned well
4-8 May 2024
Peter Lawson
poem of a friend – 6.3.24 Read Post »
