since so many people left the country – because of the war, but also because of the politics – I would like to suggest that they keep a bag packed in case elections are called and they return to vote. I know this is a very complicated issue, but i would look into it if I cared about our past, and our future.
come back and vote – 1.18.26 Read Post »
It has been too long since we’ve gone to museums in the city. But obviously we have been cured, since we found ourselves in museums at least twice this week.
And the joy was overwhelming. I can’t describe the pleasure first of seeing the crowds in both the museum called Muza and the Tel Aviv Museum, and second in the quality of the exhibits there. At the Tel Aviv Museum there is an exhibit called ” Year Zero” which consists primarily of works saved from the Nazis at the last moment, and an exhibit called “The Day is Gone” about German painting between the wars. Both are wonderful – but the former is incredibly chilling. Check out what the museum previews on these exhibits. Here: https://www.tamuseum.org.il/en/
Every reader was wonderful in this reading. worth going through the technical difficulties at the beginning with Simon’s reading while i figured out how to host the zoom with Mike Stone.
The interesting part for me is noting what I picked to read – poems about my mother mostly. How much she influenced me. Me – I begin around 101.47.
Enjoy the video – with all its flaws.
in every generation – 1.16.26 Read Post »
We began today at 7:30 on the road to Ashdod for Ezi’s medical tests. On the way, the radio announced a 4.2 earthquake in the area. We didn’t feel it, but it was clear that it was just one of those days. The encouragement the Iranian protesters got from the U.S. disappeared, like the earth opening under their feet.
we came back and went to exchange a jacket i bought online from Delta but I was already tired and wound up exchanging it for another one too big. Just like the politics here.
Then we overate at Akikos because our schedule had been screwed up by the early morning ride, and it occurred to me that the schedules for elections here are getting screwed up in the same way now.
And so the day continued – but it moved from my political paranoia to my horror of technical work. I had to run a zoom, open it, read tough material, and lead a discussion. I messed up here and there but thanked my lucky stars I got through with it, and it may mean that there is some mercy in the world.
finally found some to look at my blood tests and it looks like long covid. this explains why i prefer to stay in bed and binge watch old series. We talk about going up north, encouraging fledgling businesses there, arranging celebrations for my new books, but our out-of-bed time is limited to fixing drains from the flooding, airing out the shelter in case trump decides to attack Iran (You know that means it will attack us), comforting my friends and family, shell-shocked from the past 2+ years of bombing, rebuilding, staying cool….
long covid – 1.14.26 Read Post »
Whenever a war threatens, I find myself stocking up on food. It isn’t even a conscious plan – it’s an instinct over which I have no control. And this is not happening this time.
Maybe I’m just too worn out to have strong instincts, but I hope the US finds an alternative to violence to alleviate the situation.
As for the storm in the area – we deal with the rain and flooding with proper winter clothing – and an eiderdown in bed. I hope the sirens won’t make us run down to the cold cold shelter.
i don’t think so – 1.13.26 Read Post »
Even though I spent a few happy hours examining the underbelly of shopping malls in Dizengoff Center, my mind was on Jacob Glatstein’s poem that Michael sent me and was burning my phone. Unlike Glatstein’s other poems, “Good night, world” is written in the kind of street Yiddish I haven’t heard for ages. It was like the gangsters whose hair my father cut in the fifties. April, 1938 – he was mad at the whole western world that had pretended to absorb Jews into the culture, devastating Jewish culture and all the while the holocaust was brewing…
Because a few people wrote me that they wondered why I was publishing a book about English poets in Hebrew and not English, it was because I couldn’t get responses from publishers in the U.S. I didn’t try very hard, because I was thinking that I may well die in a rocket attack and it would be good to get it off the table. So now the book is out and I’m still here – so I’ll have to start looking for a publisher again.
why not english? -1.9.26 Read Post »
