I’ve been trying not to think of soldiers all day. I mean the soldiers I have known have been beautiful people, warm and friendly, talented…
and then I remember they are gone.
and I don’t want to think of that.
soldiers – 4.30.25 Read Post »
Appropos “Survivors.” One thing that I remember most from the refugees I encountered when I was growing up was the need for a home. The idea of of a homeland – a place of safety – a place that could be defended – was always in the air. And Israel was the ideal – a place to go to if you need to, a place that provides you with a safety net.
How would they feel on this memorial day I wonder – when there is the growing sense that the country has not been protecting its inhabitants, when the same dangers of the old world have returned. Pogroms, hatred, shame…
We hung the flag on our balcony, and I thought of all the people we have lost in Israel, all the soldiers, all the children, all the people who came to this country to be protected from evil.
The paperback is formatted and can be purchased, but the picture doesn’t show up here. i don’t even have a copy myself, so i won’t be launching this book until September. but I really hope you read it and get an additional dimension of those who were lost and those who escaped.
yes i am in the photograph.
Survivors, the paperback – 4.29.25 Read Post »
I don’t know why I haven’t put all these poems together before. Most of them have been published in different journals, and some even appear in previous books of mine.
now that they’re out, I can write about something else.
Survivors – 4.28.25 Read Post »
a chance conversation with friends reminded me – yes – I believe in women in the army. Not only because my aunt was a partisan in this yearWWII, not only because I identified with a friend who was proud to be active in the reserves but also because I believe in equality of responsibility. I don’t mean that women can be as strong as men but they can carry their own part.
And then someone asked me about Haredi women. And the answer burst from me that they too could do their part. Most haredi women are married by 18 and have children to take care of, but they could still take part somehow.
It’s not only about equality. it’s about inclusion and responsibility in society. Lots of women – even women my age, have been cooking for soldiers so they could have a hot meal I wouldn’t visit that punishment on the soldiers
What was different about today? I’ve been home finishing all kinds of projects (and not finishing others) for the past few days – and suddenly I realized that the skies had cleared and the dust had settled. A few days ago I could barely see the sunset and today the sky was gorgeously clear.
And I was stuck home with my writing and my cooking. Some friends are coming for lunch and I’ve forgotten how to cook – since before the epidemic.
I’ve also forgotten how to organize my writing – There are so many drafts of so many manuscripts I cannot begin to sort them out.
Thank goodness for the sun.
What Will Endure
Who will survive? What will endure? The wind will endure.
The blindness endures of the blind that disappears.
A hint of the sea: a wisp of foam.
A tiny cloud entangled in a tree.
Who will endure? What will endure? A chance
That recreates its emergence,
A fiddle rose enduring for itself alone
Seven blades of grass from the lawn will understand.
More than all the stars from north to here,
that star will endure that falls in a pure tear
A drop of wine always remains in the jug.
Who will endure? God will endure, is that enough for you?
holocaust Remains – Read Post »
At first I thought the siren was an alarm, and a second later I realized it was the siren of Holocaust Day, and I stood still as the image of crowds of people being herded into gas chambers kept running before my eyes. Last night Hillel was debating with himself about whether what we did in Gaza was genocide and I didn’t have the energy to enter the debate – but while I agree it was a terrible thing to demand the return of the hostages by trying to bomb terrorists and calling the many deaths ‘collateral damage,’ it was no where near the intentional destruction of a race.
I stood with the sirens thinking of the masses of people destroyed and then all the relatives I never met and suddenly the image of lines leading to death chambers was replaced by a seder table with aunts and uncles telling inside family jokes. It’s something I always miss on Passover – being with the same people every year, where the annual repetitions of family traditions are comforting.
