Because I promised to read a poem by Rivka on her birthday next week, i decided to translate a few of them. When i finished this draft, I began to cry. what do you think?
There is a time
When more quietly than quiet the poem resides.
Where is the poem?
Consumed in the fires
Dumbfounded by hunger
In the ghastly rasp of a bullet
In the bloody scream of terror
Frozen in icy snow
Where is the poem?
In memory.
february 4, 2021 – Rivka bassman’s birthday party and a poem Read Post »
This is it, the final moments – we’re going to know who is going to run in the coming elections. what teams, what political parties can combine with the others and whether the government will be a better one. My favorite candidate is the guy who dropped out. itzik Shmueli – the guy who was so devoted to the goal of helping win over the corona that he totally screwed up his political career.
After him, I admire Benny Ganz terribly.
But I’ll probably vote for Labor as always. They look good – ideologically speaking. And it’s a family tradition.
february 4, 2021 – musical chairs begins Read Post »
I’ve been talking all day to friends who are mothers and it seems to me they are the heroines of this entire situation. All of them are professional women, and in the good days their kids are in daycare, or school from 8-4, with hot lunches, and they pick them up from work, play with them for an hour or two, make a salad for the kids and their partners bathe the kids for bed. Now everyone is at home and home has become hell. On the other hand their cellphone has become their real place of residence.
february 2, 2021 – home Read Post »
The anemones are out. Usually they bloom at the end of February or the beginning of March. And everyone drives down to the south to see them. But now the weather is almost summery and we’re in lockdown and the times are wrong and keeps changing : We are expecting rain on the day the quarantine is supposed to end. That will keep most of us close to home.
But most people don’t believe that the quarantine will end, or that anything will really change with the elections. There is a sense of relinquishing hope, of .. maybe… despair. After that great anticipation of the vaccinations, we discover that all our ambivalence about the innoculations was in vain – that we thought and thought and thought about what to do and now we are largely vaccinated and there is a new strain to which perhaps we’re not immune.
february 1, 2021 – flowers and weather Read Post »
Since i haven’t put up any events in a year and haven’t even looked at my event page since I set up this site, I should start sharing the next week with you.
Let’s see, tomorrow at the SELI conference I’ve got 5 minutes to explain about the poetry boom on zoom.
then on the 13th we’re probably having a Valentines’ zoom with every one reading love poems – more info coming as soon as we can get ourselves to get along…
then on the 14th at five in the afternoon there’s a birthday party for Rivka Bassman in Yiddish
then on the 16th Sabine Hunyh and I are doing an afternoon on the book “Survivre son histoire/Surviving her story” for an event at Oxford University and the University of Michigan. You can register here
january 31, 2021 – what’s coming up Read Post »
Paranoia is the new normal – at least for me. When we see others on the street, we cross over to the other side. We fear our children, and now even more than before because even though we’re on lockdown its only in theory – After all, children have to play with each other, shops have to open – even only through the back door, hairdressers seem to be going around to people’s homes. All this makes life more difficult for those of us who remain vulnerable.
There is also a crazy mental isolation among the population. In our walk today we met a number of neighbors our age who were without masks and big smiles on their faces. “Aren’t we lucky? We’re safe!” they said, as if the while thing is over. it isn’t.
january 30, 2021 – corona normal Read Post »
This is the holiday of the new year of trees, and is usually celebrated by the planting of a sapling. Since we have planted all our saplings, and can’t see our kids yet to plant with them, what I’ve decided to do is show my appreciation to my favorite tree.
Both of us need a hug. This tree has been through a great deal this year. Before the Covid 19 lockdown the entire street was renovated and many changes made – most of them pretty, but stupid. This poor tree was knocked about by mistake at least 3 times, and lost many of its limbs. I watched in horror while branches were broken off by accident, and no attempt was made to even out the broken edges to prevent disease and allow for further growth. Nevertheless it has survived, and it is due to blossom soon. 
january 28, 2021 – the new year of trees – tu b’shvat Read Post »
Even though we have the highest percentage of vaccinated people (close to 3/8ths of the population as of today), we are also suffering a high percentage of deaths from corona, and a lot of younger people infected. The big problem is the situation of the hospitals, suffering terribly from budgetary problems. A friend suggested we turn the hospitals into yeshivas and that way the funding problem would be solved. But seriously folks – this situation can’t go on. For years we’ve seen the halls of the wards crowded with beds filled with seriously ill patients and the medical staff fighting to accomodate every one. it couldn’t continue like this, and after almost a year of this I’m sure we’ll have many more deaths just because there aren’t enough nurses to keep an eye on those monitors that can totally change in seconds.
Somehow I was thinking of this today while I sat with a friend in the warm sun and watched the beautiful flowers and vegetables on the window sill. Tonight there will be a storm and I wonder which plants will suffer, which survive. It is my job to keep watch and try to protect them.
And to add to this strange combination of thoughts – I watched the Palestinian workers building a luxurious house down the street, and have learned since there are tens of thousands of workers who cross the border daily – not only to build houses, but also to work in hospitals. They are rarely tested and the vaccinations haven’t yet arrived there.
This train of thought may seem to you to be only the musings of a poet, but I see it as essential to a politician as well…
january 27, 2021 – before a storm Read Post »
