The Deal, whatever it turns out to be, will not be good. I keep thinking about “Go” and other board games when the object is to surround the opponent so that they cannot move. When I see the kids flat on the floor to hide from 30 hizballah rockets just today, I feel we are in that position.
the deal – 5.24.26 Read Post »
or “The Desert Breeds Monotheists”
here’s the text:
Starlight in your eyes
starlight is the prize
Your beauty blooms
only in the dark
Starlight in your eyes
starlight is the price
When will I be allowed
into your heart
Your body sways
a caravan in the night
circles within circles
the resonance of zills
piercing the dark
the unknown blackness
Darling only the darkness
gives relief
from the blinding sun
enduring grief.
Caravans riding through endless dunes
thirsting for the touch of water on the lips
all day long I long for you
I cannot reach the end of you
— your starlight, your eyes—
the ever-changing price,
the gold scattering from your feet
sand, shining like wheat
your footprints everywhere in the sand
as you dance away across the land
I call to you from the depths of all I hunger for
like the desert has called for centuries
Come to me come to me
incorporating music – 5.23.26 Read Post »
i’m not reading the news accurately – the big danger up north seems to be drones. Drones and invasion attempts. I think of my loved ones on the border and of the mutilation and rape on October 7 and my mind crumbles.
We had a great afternoon at the beach. A fine lunch, good friends, great stories. The great waves that caused the lifeguards to chase everyone out of the water calmed down in the afternoon and the children raced to the sea. Ezi managed to turn off the notices that come to my watch and I was incredibly grateful to him – so that only when we came home did we realize that the north has been bombarded all day long.
rockets all day up north – 5.22.26 Read Post »
shvuout – 5.22.26
This may be the first year my friends and I didn’t spend a part of the evening discussing the holiday. Even though most of the group is not interested in religion, the hostess always prepares a speech. But this year even the speech was irrelevant. We were all distracted by the death or degeneration of some of our usual participants, friends for decades. And the war may start up again any minute. And the constant rockets in the north. Hard to remember the beauty of the first fruits. hard to think of David’s grandmother.
So you want to know how the poetry reading went. Well, even though I was overwhelmed by the way my computer was behaving, I was impressed by how the poets managed to convey the sense of individual and collective fear and helplessness that we all feel in these years of war. I’ll send a link soon.
But for me, even though I just read a funny poem about fear, what was important to discover was that when I spoke of fear and mourning, I was feeling it for each individual in the group – those whose houses were destroyed, those who were displaced, those who discovered new diseases that are clearly war related and those whose children have lost years of schooling…
and now it will begin again. Those who have drones coming in their windows to destroy them, those who are struggling to get past mortal injuries from previous bombings of civilians and military personell… I could go on forever and I still have touched on the subject of October 7 itself.
Even the fact that no newspaper abroad is paying attention to our simple sufferning is a source of grief for me.
under fire – 5.21.26 Read Post »
last night my email went crazy, and everything else on my computer behaved differently. I spent the evening trying to control it, especially when I was hosting a zoom of poetry about “under fire” but the mail was gone and there were all kinds of virtual creaks and whistles. so the next morning I raced to the help center – well i didn’t actually race. i walked with a friend who had a virtual map and it misled us for half an hour until I called the place and asked for directions. Then it was only about an hour of waiting and listening to the complex consultation of all these young geniuses before my computer and phone were returned to me and I was sent on my way.
I may have been exhausted but I kept saying – AT LEAST I’LL HAVE MY COMPUTER FOR THE WAR.
At home, I discovered that while the email was working, it was also delivering everything to my watch.
with real creaks and whistles.
Still that’s something I can fix and now I can get back to my life.
sorry for the delay
Fixed it. Whoopee! – 5.20.26 Read Post »
Ever since I heard an English bookstore had been opened on Ben Yehuda Street I’ve been anticipating a visit. And when I found Bookhaus on the web, and it seemed so organized and inviting, I put down my work and we drove over there.
Wow was it not like any bookstore I’ve ever seen before. OCD – it looked like all the books were the same size and in perfect order. But there was nothing I wanted to read except books I’d read before or books about potty training and other subjects I’ve outgrown.
Searching for a break, I looked for the cafe the website promised but there were no signs of a napkin much less the aroma of coffee.
When I entered I explained that I was a writer and had a bit of web presence. I didn’t mention that I chaired the english writers’ association because it was clear the woman at the desk was about to crawl under the desk at my declarations. She had already yawned when I asked her if she could order books for individuals.
what more could I have asked her? We examined every shelf looking for something to buy, and without a single person approaching us to acknowledge our presence. In the end we left, disheartened.
no one else seems to feel as I did – see the wonderful reviews in instagram https://www.instagram.com/bookhaustlv/?hl=en
but i was very sadly disappointed.
bookhaus – 5.19.26 Read Post »
