blog, my life in tel aviv, poetry

Self portrait 

At four I was brought to be photographed

in a studio near where my father worked.

Perhaps it was a favor, perhaps a gift,

But definitely a tremendous event

because my mother fussed so much.

And the new dress impressed me so intensely

I ceased my eternal weeping.

 

To make me smile for perpetuity,

the man put a yellow basket in my hand,

seated me on a regal pillowed bench,

then without straightening my sleeves

said ‘watch the birdie’ and flashed

my moment of joy.

self portrait – feb 5, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

We seem to live on TV.  Maybe since the beginning of Covid, but certainly since the war.  Of course we see family and friends, and we manage a concert, a play or two, a museum, a beach, but the real intimacy is with television.  Lately it’s been interviews with hostages that were released, in horror and anticipation of the release of the other hostages.  Their stories disturb my sleep even more than the rockets over tel aviv that have stopped for now.  Even more than the anticipation of Hizballah rockets that are much more powerful and dangerous than the ones we’ve managed to avoid in the last months.  

And to add to all the confinement and discomfort, my covid doesn’t want to leave me.  I am still barely functioning and although I’m handling the reading on words of war on wednesday – somehow – I’m not doing anything with energy.  

No wonder my friends have given up on me.

 

life on tV – feb 4, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

I comfort myself by noting that I’m not the only one with an addled mind, so it’s not just from the covid that I keep mixing up directions in my computer, missing appointments and misunderstanding people’s feelings.  I mean even the Hamas leaders are at odds with each other.    

But one thing that was clear tonight in the poetry reading (that I had been initially invited to introduce my new book in Hebrew but then been forgotten about in the planning.  )  That people still love poetry in Hebrew and have returned to the holocaust, The trauma of this war seems so similar, it also addles our minds.  But never mind.  Perhaps tomorrow my reasoning will be more clear.

Addled Mind – Feb 3, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

The Times had a front page article on the war the world can’t see.  The header said that 26 press have been killed by Israel, and the large color photo documented a crowded funeral. A body encircled by people – about 50 mourners and at least 40 cameramen with PRESS on their backs documenting it. 

I don’t think a day has passed without articles in the Times about the tragedies in Gaza.   We don’t get as much access to photographs from Gaza – but then you don’t get much information about our refugees, mourners, displaced, hostages. 

Oh, wait, we don’t get information about hostages either.

 

 

the war we’re not seeing – feb 1, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry
Absence
 
“What are you looking for?”
we’d ask Mother, as she rummaged
a cupboard or a drawer or the phone book.
“My lost youth,” she’d answer
absent-mindedly, having forgotten
whatever had occupied her mind
when she first began to search.
The bombs, the soldiers, the streets
covered with bodies, the story of the children
smashed against the wall, her babies
washed down the drain in the bathtub in Danzig,
they were always
right there in the cupboard, the drawer,
the book next to the telephone.
 
 
http://www.minyanmag.com/karenalkalaygut.html
 
 
http://www.minyanmag.com/karenalkalaygut.html

international Holocaust Remembrance Day Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Have I mentioned that I have Covid?  Unlike Ezi, I have foregone a search for Paxlovid, and no one has mentioned it.  I haven’t even called my doctor.   Right now, I’m watching tv and seeing how the north of the country is faring in these days  – the north deserted, and those who remain live in terror.  And while the program goes on, the sirens go off.  the names of the northern towns are listed on the side of the television.  

Nothing like that to put a fevery cough into proportion.

 

Covid – Jan 27, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

The funding is being cut from UNRWA, and even though I know they were active participants even in the pillaging and murder on Oct 7, I regret the hunger that will result.  There is no justification in starvation of innocent people.  I’ve always said in these pages that UNRWA is a dangerous organization under the guise of a charity.  But we have to find an alternative way of supplying food and medicine to these people.  Are airdrops possible?

 

uNRWA -Jan 27, 2026 Read Post »