israeli politics

type casting - 6.30.26

years ago, when Sharon Kessler started talking about her fascination with typesetting and printing, I was mildly interested.  Last month when she gave me a few books she had printed I became fascinated.  The concept of focussing on the word, each word, each line, made me realize what is missing in my own poetry, the carelessness I find that characterizes my mind.  

So today we drove up to Pardess Chana to film her in her studio where we found her ready to show us her printing machines, the process of hand setting the words and printing.  It was fascinating  – a world in a studio!

more to come

Type casting – 6.30.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

finally on kindle - 6.29.26

Alone in the Dawn is a book that taught me how to put my heart in writing.  It’s a biography of Adelaide Crapsey and even though it is about a poet who never got to see her work in print, I learned about developing a life.  And next month it will be available here:https://www.ugapress.org/9780820332130/alone-in-the-dawn/in kindle.

it’s also coming out in Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/s?k=alone+in+the+dawn&crid=AKRGBGZVU64K&sprefix=alone+in+the+dawn%2Caps%2C284&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

 

 

finally on kindle – 6.29.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

Self - 6.29.26

It’s very difficult to write about the self, particularly in these times.  So much has happened to so many people in this country.  So many tragedies, so much sadness on so many levels.  I feel the same closed tragedies I experienced with refugees I met long ago – refugees who didn’t experience the brunt of the holocaust, but – that inability to express what has happened to them.  It was like what Alona Frankel said about growing up in a closet – she didn’t know what was going on in the concentration camps, she only knew she had mice to play with and no one else for a few years.  

And yet with us the threat doesn’t end – our very existence is always under threat.  

So how can I complain about the fact that I don’t feel like cooking any more or my friends are getting old or something so banal?   

Se Read Post »

israeli politics

local tV - 6.28.26

I’ve always complained about local tv – but lately even British theater online is too much for me.  Netflix – eh.  Prime – ok.  But channel 12 can keep me transfixed all evening.  Of course I’m doing other things at the same time, but I kind of feel the awareness of the need to heal in the most banal of evening programs.  “Dancing with the Stars” digs into the vulnerabilities of the most successful of stars – some who have never danced before and fear the exposure of their weaknesses.  “Wedding at first glance” is all about building relationships – at a time when couples are rebuilding their marriages, or learning from the start how to get along with others after years of high stress.  

The only problem I have is with the news.  

lo Read Post »

israeli politics

levanon - 6.27.26

I’ve been thinking about Nada Hamadeh, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States, who signed the framework for a peace agreement with Israel, all day.  What a brave woman!  How many peacemakers who signed with Israel from Levanon have been murdered.   How important for Levanon to return to the wonderful world they had before they were taken over by extremists.  I suspect the wonderful people I knew from Levanon long ago are no longer among the living, but if George Khairallah is still with us, I can’t wait to walk with him along the boulevards of Beirut the way we walked in Salzburg almost 35 years ago.

lebanon – Read Post »

israeli politics

Dancing with the Stars - 6.26.26

Escaping from the corruption, the shame, the stupidity and the evil around us, we escape every other night to a tv program of a dance competition of amazing famous people who learn to excel in musical movement over the months.  Not every one watches this kitsch, in fact most educated and respectable people stay away from tv in the first place, but we are glued to it, amazed how normal people can learn the contortions demanded of them – on high heels yet.  

Pure avoidance.  The helplessness of confrontation is too much to bear.  I cannot go to the West Bank and stop the marauding settlers.  I can and will do everything I can to change the situation, but it’s only in the ballot box that a change can be attempted.

People from other countries tell me that I don’t know the truth of what is happening here, but we do, we know far more than many others, because we recognize fake news with more accuracy that people more far away in more civilized countries, and we know just a bit more about how dancing with the stars is doctored, just as we know how much of the news that arrives in the foreign press is altered, and how it is close to the truth, but not really.    

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israeli politics

port said - 6.24.26

Port Said is one of the ‘cafes’ next to the Great Synagogie…

at one point Oren turned to me and said, “Everything you could want is here.  The music is as up to date as you could possibly want – The food is out of this world – and everyone is enjoying themselves.”  I was sitting opposite the portrait of Farid Al-Atrash and thinking, it isn’t like Port Said – it is more like the dream of Port Said.  And how can this be, we wondered, when the world hates us, we’re trying to keep our heads above water on the northern border while our soldiers are dying so that people can continue to live in their homes even though they are under siege, and we could all disappear in a minute.

and yet there is Port Said

port said – 6 Read Post »