=extraox Append to =washedox ------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM COLLECTED POEMS 1984-1992: from =hoc!(hic *after a sunrise rain-squall white storks on a field of fresh-cut alfalfa (Mehola, 1/30/85) -------------------------------------------------------------- yearling yaelim curious as schoolgirls (Ein Gedi, winter 1985) --------------------------------------------------------------- *the halil I lost -- how I want to play it now -- lonely winter evening --------------------------------------------------------- Enduring a Spinoza Colloquium I recall dawn at Ein Gedi. ---------- *The charm of sin is simply its illictness, like the warmth of stolen sleep after the alarm clock rings. ----- *Bewailing povery awaken to birdsong -- summer daybreak. (7/14/86 -- Ein Hemed) -------------------------------------------------------------- *"The legend'ry Lawrence of Arabia" reminisced the old gentleman "once told me, 'Machine-gun everyone.' "I enquired, 'Who shall do it?' and he replied, "You will.' After which I ate a stout breakfast." (from a documentary on Jordanian TV). ================================================================= From =besthock Automatic stuck in his jeans the bank guard mists the potted plants ------------ Arik Sharon landed at Ofra and said "What do you want?" And all the people answered, "Build us a factory!" Now Ofra has a factory with nothing in it. ------------- Meyer said "Yup, sometimes in this country it can take all day to make 3 phone calls." (Moshav Shedmot Mechola, 1984) ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Poet Contemplates his Lift "I had it of Leah..." Shakespeare, Merch. of Ven. III:1 Just a yekke or family fault to throw nothing out, no doubt; yet to lose these unused objects imbued with memories or enclosing unrealized dreams, never disowned breaks me up. ----- Some things seemingly take too much time but 't ain't so much the heat as the circuitious logistics of poverty. ------ T.S.' B.S. Revisited Bleinstein in knickers but armed with "Let's Go/ Corfu" I shamble past mopeds and all the goyim come to do their thing and blunder in front of the Old Synagog built 1537, obsoleted 1941. Only the names remain on mistransliterated street-signs -- Solomou, Koen, Kaplou... Refs: T.S. Eliot, "Beerbahm with a Baedecker, Bleinstein with a Cigar" "Let's Go to Greece", 1988 p 206 (research by Ellen Goodman) ----- Flip-Flop Song at 'sixes and sevens' or 'sevens and sixes'? it mixes me up whichever it is &/or ought to be or Akiva: if it don't matter and you can't decide go back; water flowing over alabaster will wait. Ref: Zohar? "If you come to a place...."etc, ----- Quickly the Germans ruined everything the Jewish bride would ever have so three times a day the old lady triple-locks her door. ----- Mark- and mock- -ed by German tourists the prosperous old Yiddishe lady at the Dead Sea Spa discreetly stuffs leftover bread eggs cheese and fruit and a few napkins etcetera into her handbag. ----- ================================================================== from 'Crazy Louie and the Bum' The best of bad-time buddies he lends what he's got answers Tora honestly and knows it's a mitzva to steal food. ----- Times ain't precisely tough, but in my mailbox the only good news is a draft notice. 4/22/87 ----- stumbling thorugh a false short-cut slightly lost, spaced, thirsty and hungry -- how delicate the wildflowers ----- ================================================================== from =mopo8992 The gold-winged blackbirds stopped last fall in England to call me home. Ein Gedi December 20, 1991 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Leila: Black streets, cold rain driven by a howling wind. "Everyone pauses, dreaming of peace" says Shlomo they tell us, waiting outside. Mincha time: snow settling like doves on orange trees and the Old City walls. Jerusalem 31.12.91--01.01.92 ------------------------------------------------------------------- * No blame, only loss of something unidentified. Nothing changed. The 'Angel with Flaming Sword' could await discreetly an improbable crisis. Reaching toward each other they savor particulars of a new, unwanted world. (1991, Hamburg) ----------------------------- * After so much rain a warm winter's day -- hastily I sit in the sun trying not to alarm it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Today they are burying two persons whom I did not know were dead nor had lived. Israel, May 4, 1989 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The elderly proprieter of Bet HaNeshek displays Chinese vases as if to say, although my wares may shatter skulls these, at least, are precious. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sitting by the swimming pool I glance up at the West Bank village on the opposite hillside. (Makabim, 21.04.92) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, shomer mitzvot mayonaise -- today's fast I unintentionally betake from thee. 10 Tevet, C.E. 1990] ------------------------------------------------------------------- and the drunk on Jaffa Road spake unto the autobus exhaust saying been sittin' here since '48 nobody sees me might's well go back home ------------------------------------------------------------------- & on the 8th Day Man said it was good for a start but Let there be brighter lights electric birds imaginary foods and fire-waters. You rest; we'll boogie -- Yalla, Chava. Tiberias, Motzi Shabbat, 31.05.92, 00:30 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Emperor of Ice Cream Shall Return" "Hi -- Last time we met you spoke of Jeshua. He's Messiah." "What's Messiah?" "Next time we meet the oldest buys ice-cream for everyone -- 'Bye." ------------------------------------------------------------------- One day a poor student met a comely young woman of Moab, and followed her home. Then he remembered his duties and spurned her. Quite a bit later, when he came to the rainbow bridge to the pearl-light gates of heaven, he found, as expected, a great sage robed in a long tallit waiting to greet him. `Did you really not recognize me?' asked the Moabitess. (Hamburg, 1991) ------------------------------------------------------------------- "this people mild politely smiled" Gilbert & Sullivan, Iolanthe(?) The Great Synagogue of Hamburg remains only as a black-&-white photo the bimah glimpsed behind a smirking factory worker. Today we may fast or go to the Opera; for the villains have passed in a Cheshire cat's ass. November 8, 1990* Hamburg--Holland train * November 9, 1938, was "Kristalolnacht"; ------------------------------------------------------------------- from =satires The sons of the desert rise before dawn wrap their heads in kaifa and close their shops at mid-day despite cold winter rain. ----- And yet if our Rebbe said the moon is made of green cheese and we're all going there for shal shudes, I'd forgo the cholent at lunch. ---------------------------------------------------------------- How hard they work now to clear a rational path through Levantine poverty. ------- 'See much, say little.' Wiry as Jacob, striding stones to shelter and raise a family on sun-scourged land. ------------------------------------------------------------------- *News Item by Andy Court from the Jerusalem Post Pesach edition In Katmandu in '88 ba'al tchuva at a Seder said "This can't, man, do -- know where you're at, baby: call the Rebbe." In '89, beneath the sign of a bakery on the way of the Elephant-god came a carton of kippot with air-mailed matza (baked in great haste) and a hundred tins of gefillte fish with two 20-year-olds in coat-and-tails flown all the way from Austalia. ------------------------------------------------------------ It is reported that a diplomat has said: `One must see many cities to collect a single poem. Zhlolp'd in the sun, I remember my bookshelves. -------- Amusing a modern woman by my covered head I pass Dammtor Plaza and glance down at a bronze plaque. (Hamburg, 1991) ----- An infaturation with artifice Once upon a time several gentlemen of Japan flew to Israel got off at Lod shot everyone in sight went to jail for a decade or so and then flew home. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================= RECOLLECTED POEMS: The valleys are filled with mist. From each rise I find myself, surprised, till climbing the distant mountain. (Lama, ca. 1968)--------------------- one mountain, many ways how restlessly I change trails eager for each new view. (Old City, ca. '86) ================================================================== POEMS '03: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Leah said When I was young I wanted to be Rashi I asked Shlomo How did Rashi get to be Rashi He said He was so connected to his own letter in the Torah that it opened a window. {N.B.: This notes a teaching ca. 8/03 by Leah Golumb, at (and a founder of) Moshav Meor Modi'in, so anyone interested in further circulating it should first ask her.} ------------------------------------------------------------------ A damaged stone plaque tells that 10 years ago the people of the Netherlands in a gesture of friendship gave the people of Israel a million tulip bulbs. Today the ground is bare. (Jerusalem, 10 July 2003 ) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Indians run on Indian time and hippies hop along after; but honkies stub toes on the mobilea of a world that won't ever sit still. : exegesis of`B-Li NeDeR' ------------------------------------------------------------------- this off-the-rack black suit don't quite fit yet but it sure beats rags. ------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Untitled ] "viens la nuit, sonne l'heure les jours sont vent, je demeure" (Valery, Le Pont Mirabeau) I did not go out not having taken a lamb for fear of offending the neighbors. I had thought -- well, that it might not be quite -- appropriate. It was very quiet that night. and after the commotion in the morning they were quite kind; said I would not have to work until late afternoon and even gave me extra food. Sometimes, nowadays I think of those in the desert. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================== ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ