Sunday, July 26, 2009

And Yet.*

G-d please help and bless
me though I know it's what You
do bless me and all
k
My poems are my
blankets of protection and
flotation cushions
kmnnnn
Perhaps I shouldn't
be here writing in this space
and yet and yet and
,,n
===========================
onn
* Nicole Krauss, in The History of Love, taught me many things, including - but not only - that "and yet" (like "no") can be a full sentence. I cherish "and yet" along with Nicole's inscription, which she wrote after holding back the Barnes and Noble line, asking about me, before signing, "For Neil With Luck And Hope." I sometimes think/know that it's time to make new space on the shelf and let the book go. And yet. How do you let go of, "Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a house across the field from a girl who no longer exists... They collected the world in small handfuls... Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering...?" You let go if you have to. And yet.-And yet. And yet.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Eric said...

Wow, that sub-post is beautiful. It's funny, my friend mentioned that book to me yesterday as being one his favorites, but I wasnt too sure I could trust him in the book department. Do you recommend it?

July 27, 2009 at 4:07 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Eeeek, this beautiful phrase gives me goosebumps: "They collected the world in small handfuls... "

July 27, 2009 at 8:49 PM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Thanks Eric. It's a really good book, IMHO - definitely worth reading. The Times reviewd it twice, one positive, one negative -but I think the positive one was more on the mark. It's ambitious and imperfect, and has pieces of almost unimaginable beauty. I had forgotten how good it was until I opened it to a random page last night and found the phrases I transcribed.

(I raved about this book more before I read The World To Come by Dara Horn. I couldn't imagine someone puling this type of thing off.)

I posted that Times review here -
http://rabbifleischmann.blogspot.com/2005/05/history-of-love-review.html

And I'd forgotten till just now that I wrote about how serendipidy brought me "accidentally" to that reading that night. And I write about the passage she read - an amazing piece about a father's love for a son (and really much more)! I also write about the sensitive, fascinating way she spoke.

http://rabbifleischmann.blogspot.com/2005/05/nightday.html

Anne, thanks. Yes, that's quite a phrase, captures the unique closeness of two people, the love, the playfulness, so much - in seven words.

July 28, 2009 at 1:14 AM  

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