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.
“You can skip it,” I told my daughter this afternoon, as I was on my way home from the doctor and fretting about how I wasted my time going there when he has never once looked up from his computer. Every complaint I had, he dismissed as stress. So I thought to myself, maybe I should avoid the extra stress of the mourning over the past. And maybe my grandchildren should be spared as well. Then I thought again. The extra stress would be caused by avoiding a part of my history. As with my children.
yom haShoa – 4.23.25 Read Post »
I usually try to avoid getting deep into Holocaust Day – It is simply too much for me. I always remember my mother weeping before the television, unable to tell the worst of the stories. But this year I launched my book of holocaust poems on Amazon – first on Kindle – and then I tried to get it out today on paperback. But it seems to be delayed for some anonymous amazon reason. The kindle is worth reading anyway even though it went crazy on the formatting. Then you can decide if you want the paperback. Look up my name and “survivors.” Maybe it will encourage me to remember more stories that people told me way back then…
Getting Ready for Holocaust Read Post »
