The journal of the Israel Association of Writers in English, which I chair, is coming out very soon and the launch is tonight. 7:30 Israel time. Email me for the link, but I fear you may be too late. The theme is ‘kisses’. and there are so many people who want to hear about kisses it may be impossible to satisfy their curiosity. For example, do you know there’s a difference between a Western kiss and an Arab kiss?
december 17, 2020 – reading tonight and kisses Read Post »
I miss making music. i really do – reading a poem with music… I’ve been recording poems with Robert Priest – he gives me instructions how to do it, and Ezi and I work on them, send them to him, and he gives us more instructions. patiently.
Roy Yarkoni just sent me the link to where he put our Thin Lips album. It’s here. the whole album for free.
i even learned a bit about performing
as you can see here from a short clip
Roy went on to take my poetry and make three more albums with Panic Ensemble and they were very successful but I still think we would have been better alone. Here’s one album
it would be great to hear what you think of these. Lately I only get letters from people who want something from me.
december 16, 2020 – music Read Post »
Ever since I’ve lived here, December 15 is a holiday for me. Why? Because today is the day Ezi turns on the heat for the building. When I first came to Israel the usual method of heating was a gasoline space heater. you rolled it out to the balcony, closed the door, lit it, carefully, and then rolled it back to the living room. Then we all sat around it to warm up. After that gas heaters became popular, but I had an accident with one that scared me. i was sitting by my little daughter’s bedside at night and because she was ill, I moved the gas heater close to the door of her room. At some point I fell asleep and woke hours later to the strong smell of gas. The pipe had come loose.
Everything worked out in the end and I am probably the only one who remembers this incident.
But for 40 years I have been living in an apartment with heated floors, and I always rejoice on this day. Heated floors are long out of fashion, and many apartments in our building have disconnected from it, but we stay with this old system because it is amazing.
This is a hot country, and most of our concerns are about keeping cool. We don’t do it the inexpensive indigenous way, though, with thick walls and small windows, but with air conditioning. But in the few months when it gets cold here, it’s very cold inside, and inevitably I get sick.
So forget about the miracle of Hanukah – today is a holiday. Definitely.
december 15, 2020 – heating Read Post »
somehow i think this is a special hanuka, and a special menora is needed. so here’s our symbolic corona menora:
it gave me great pleasure to find good use for our toilet paper.
december 14, 2020 – fourth candle of hanuka Read Post »
i’m on a zoom evening with the Hebrew Writers association, but nothing is happening. For the past hour we’ve been doing sound checks and lighting and only now it has begun. Writers from Poland, Hungary, France, Argentina and Israel are watching each other, waiting their turn to read a poem about light. my poem – is about a suitcase full of all our poems –
SUITCASE
Let me put the poems in a suitcase
and carry them with me everywhere —
like mulch, like dressing, I say:
Not separate spots of time, with their
renovating virtue, but blended —
losing all sense of separateness,
temperature, subject-object distinction
and when I pass through customs
and open the grip, the mist
will rise through the airport
transforming everyone who passes though–
coming or going.
december 14, 2020 – hebrew writers zoom Read Post »
in the past few days some rules have changed on this site – technically. or maybe i’ve just forgotten the rules, and it is not as easy for me to be spontaneous. couldn’t even get the title to work today. And if i have to have titles and follow rules, I just may have to find another way to express myself. maybe I can find a free-dance class, one of those where older people are encouraged to find their core…
there were too many zooms for me to cope last night. Tonight another zoom that I was informed about yesterday, that has me reading a poem in Hebrew about light. I was informed when I received the invitation, and it sent me into a spin. I spent the day trying to create a poem that would suit the subject, and when Ezi came home from the hospital and read it, he shrugged his shoulders – banal. His hematological treatment, the cold I caught somewhere the day before that sent me to bed early, the vaccines – all was forgotten. the poem was trashed, and an older, less relevant poem replaced. who knows if I made it in time to add it to the screen share.
now I’ve got such a cold that if I joined the zooms I promised, I’d be broadcasting from my bed, wearing these fluffy white pajamas, my eiderdown pulled up to my chest, the Sambucol and a box of tissues on the bedside table, with an occasional glass tea, and speaking in a hoarse voice punctuated by coughs and sneezes.
yes, I’m clutching my pearls.
december 14, 2020 – a taste of reality Read Post »
There are always many stories to tell about traveling around Israel, but all the Saturday stories end with a traffic jam. We left Rosh Pinna early, forgoing a final dip in the pool, but making sure we didn’t miss the misty view of Syria from Amuka
that may have been a mistake because on the way back we listened to Google for some reason. it suggested a short cut through Dalit Al Karmel, and we were thrilled. We love going through the forests and then the town. But then I began to suspect something strange. On the way there were more than the usual number of stands for Druze pita, and some of them had numerous cars parked all around. Still, the trees and the wonderful view urged us on.
But when we reached the entrance to Dalit Al Karmel we were greeted by police cars and a few yellow-vested men, who welcomed us and then said, “Sorry. but we’re a red village, and no one is allowed in.” We wished them good health and turned the car around to join a spectacular row of cars inching their way back to the main highway.
So instead of 2 hours we spent 5 on the way home, and our plans for resting the evening before Ezi’s visit to the hospital were shot.
december 12, 2020 – the detour to Dalit El carmel Read Post »
We’re on our way back to Tel Aviv soon, but walking in the fresh air of this town has been wonderfully refreshing, if quiet.
i don’t mean the town or the art galleries, which I’ve seen before and have no patience for right now, or the wonderful restaurants – all closed right now, but the waters and the hills are so wonderful, and we’ve got each other to keep us busy. More tomorrow.
december 12, 2020 – rosh pina Read Post »
