With Apologies (To Bob Marley)
I've been writing since I got here - here being Yerushalayim. But I'm skipping now to a poem I just wrote. The earlier ones are peppier.
What will remain
after the last backwards walk
away from these weeks
away from this wall
away from the breath
from the death from it -
What will remain
of my heart
and my head
and my soul
all on loan
will the truth live
be shown
Where will I go
when I leave here
why would I ever
leave home
I'm professional, older,
experienced, know more
but how much
how much have I grown
I sat in this park
many long years ago
and I wrote
of the page
being blank
now the page is
written on, folded
misplaced, been handholded
the page is now crinkled and dank
I wanted to end this
with breadth and breath
with scope and with hope
somehow I know I'll always
be one who goes up and goes down
one who struggles and gropes
so I pray that I always hold
on to this air
and remember Jerusalem
feel her and care
May we all blink
and find redemption is here
for you and for me
it will come
have no fear.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 8:52 AM
12 Comments:
Beautiful - your poetry really speaks. Maybe that's what you should teach :)
Thanks Shoshana. Poetry feedback means quite a lot to me.
I would love to teach English/poetry. Feel free to write an administrator at The Frisch School and tell them you feel it should be something that I teach offically.
This is a gorgeous poem, and beautifully written! From the content it is clear that this vacation/visit will remain with you for the rest of your life MYLABW! Shabbat Shalom ... bob
I agree with Shoshana and Bob- just beautiful! As you think about departing from what is beloved, know:
Keeper of the wall
despite physical distance
the wall still keeps you
thank you bob - compassionate and knd as always - mYlabw!
thank you maayan for your usual compassionate articulation too - may it be so that the wall keeps us all.
i've been thinking a lot about the kotel. at some point i went through a phase of - it's all about the beit hamikdash and people are misguided in how they lift up the kotel itself - but now i think that the kotel itself after all these years of gathering and prayer has taken on some of its own sanctified meaning too.
as the song goes...yesh anashim im lev shel even, yesh avanim im lev adam...happens to be one of my favorites...it's takes on sanctity AND in my humble opinion is a good friend who listens to everyones problems and gives solace to all in a way that only it (or HKBH can do!)
Upon returning to the US I pulled my first poetry filled Mead notebook and found the poem referenced in this poem
(I sat in this park
many long years ago
and I wrote
of the page
being blank).
It was the same spot in the same park. At that time I had been a madrich on a program called International Conference On Jewish Leadership.
The Page Remains Blank
(In A Park In Jerusalem - 1991)
Broad images
fill a narrow head
the hand sits
Ideas expand
the page remains blank
frustration grows
Life turns grayer
the page remains blank
the writer ages.
that page remains blank, but you have written pages and pages since then...and amazing ones at that! are you familiar with the song about the kotel that i referencec?
yes - HaKowwwtell...
thanks for the chizuk.
i so miss israel...
I know, and I can so relate, because I miss her terribly too and I wasn't even there this summer! Maybe I should call myself MSISRAEL instead of MSUSA. What do you think?
msbob
p.s. how did your night go on Tuesday? I felt badly that I couldn't make it even with all of the advance notice. I had to bring someone very near and dear to me to the airport...going to....where else but Israel. B.H. the flights all seem full.
Hi Neil.
Reading this poem some three years later...it still does something for me. Actually tonight it makes me cry. How I yearn to be there!
How'd you find this now? How'd you find me here, and send me the poem I need to read.
This time I'm feeling bad for Chevron and Tzfat. I want to, but don't know if I will, make it to those holy spots as well.
Honestly, I had forgotten this poem.
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