Part Poet

Tomorrow I may actually finally meet Rabbi David Ebner (who will be at my school to administer bechinas for Eretz HaTzvi). In honor of the occasion I present the first part of a poem from his book Perhaps This Poem. There was recently a whispering soul discussion about poetry, etc. and Rabbi Ebner's name came up. Pursuant to that conversation I recommend the Forward's article: A Yeshiva Head Explores The Faith of the Poet.

Here's an excerpt that struck me: "It is a gloomy but inevitable fact that the special qualities of Ebner's voice will be obscured by the superficial oddness of his writing poetry at all. Ideally, Ebner would distinguish himself among many such voices in Jewish poetry, but for now he is working almost alone. The upside is that he has produced a book of candor and individuality."

Here's a free sample from the blog-yard. I find it well written and profoundly human.

PoemParts.com
Part I

In the age of dot com,
when every half baked idea
became a new issue
and tripled over night
and every idiot was getting rich,
I wasn't an idiot.
I was writing poetry
and staying poor.

In the age of dot com
I proposed a poetic prospectus
for a concept company
a cyberspace supplier
of spare poem parts.

(I would become the Bill Gates of poets
appear on the cover of Time,
Millionaire Muse CEO,
forever silencing parents:
"there's no money in poetry
you'll be waiting tables").
Poemparts.com