Category Archives: Poetry

And I Am Not Invisible: A Monologue by Shunamit Kam

Poetry

God – I set out on this road

because I want to tell

about You and me.

I’m Shunamit Kam from Givatayim

27 years old.

I’m sitting here on a chair

And I don’t want to burst out laughing.

I want You to make a miracle for me

that You would come down from Heaven and I will see You.

and You are invisible

and I’m not invisible

I am a human being.

*Matia Kam: This monologue was typed on my computer in 2004.
I corrected spelling errors (many of them dyslexic) and keyboard emissions. Its entire content is hers, word for word. And so is the breaking of the lines. read more

Genesis 2020 by Ayala Emmett

Poetry
Mural by Damon Thompson

When Cain put his knee
On his brother Abel
He took away his life

 When Abel died
He left us his breath
So we can always hear the cry
Mother, my mother Eve
I cannot breath

 When we declare in every language
Black lives matter
There is Abel’s breath
When we shout, enough already
There is justice in the world

 When everywhere we turn
We see sisters and brothers
When we know that to save one life
Is to save the whole world
This is when the Ruah God’s breathe
Given to us in Genesis
Dwells in you and me read more

Meditation by Eleanor Lewin

Poetry
Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, 1950

Yesterday, a wild turkey spread his glorious crown
To catch a female’s fancy
She walked away, indifferent

I called to the turkey
Stop twirling and follow her
But it was through the glass
And he did not hear

That was morning, a small diversion
Before the long empty day
In the time of Virus

Our farewells are, “Stay Safe”
Six feet apart has replaced arm in arm
In the time of Virus

Hellos through glass
A mask, no smile visible
Gone are our conversation cues
In the time of Virus

Daily temperatures, emails, zoom
TV, reading, walking the rooms
Relentless news, relentless tragedy
In the time of Virus read more

Every Person has a Name by Zelda. In memory of the tragedy at Tree of Life Synagogue

Articles, Poetry

Every person has a name
Given to them by God
And given by their father and his mother
Every person has a name
Given them by stature and their way of smiling,
And given to them by their clothes.
Every person has a name
Given by the mountains
And given by their walls
Every person has a name
Given by the planets
And given by their neighbors
Every person has a name
Given by their regrets
And given by their longing
Every person has a name given by those who hate them
And given by love
Every person has a name
Given them by holidays
And given them by their handiwork
Every person has a name
Given by the seasons of the year
And given by their blindness
Every person has a name
Given to them by the sea
And given to them
By their death. read more

V’ahvahta or V’ahvahti: A Personal Point of View by Jerry Zakalik

Parsha Insights, Poetry
Shma Yisrael by Orit Martin

Hear O Israel: Adonai is Our God, Adonai is One

I love Adonai my God with all my heart, and with my soul, and with all my might,

And these words, which I accept this day, shall be within my being;

I will teach them faithfully to my children, and talk about them in my house, and when I walk through my life, and when I go to sleep and in my thoughts when I am awake .

I will bind them as a reminder on my hand and they will always be in front of my eyes.

I write them on my doorposts and upon my gates.

I am mindful that God has given me wonderful traits and beliefs to live by: so I consecrate myself to God. read more

Ring the Liberty Bell by Ayala Emmett

Articles, Poetry


Yesterday I saw them
Generations of ancestors
Crying on the shores of Babylon
Chained slaves to be sold at dawn
Rising up in the Warsaw Ghetto
Taking the Great Spirit on the Trail of Tears.
Isaiah was at the Statue of Liberty
With the exiled, the poor and the stranger.

Yesterday I saw the Burning Bush and
Moses on the Rio Grande waving his cane
Let my people go.
In Pharaoh’s land the mothers wailed
In Texas their babies were jailed.

Yesterday I saw in the sea of refugees
Deborah the Judge and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Holding the Declaration and God’s Rainbow
Hannah prayed with humanity
Spread over us the shelter of Your peace. read more

Ivrit B’kapit by Eleanor Lewin

Poetry

 Hebrew by the teaspoon

Drops of water to the sea

Grains of sand to the beach

Spoon to cup to meal

Spread before us like royalty

We partake, aware that time

Provides us space

To build a bridge

To beloved, ancient, intriguing

Words of connection

Ivrit B’kapit, b’kapit , b’kapit.

Postcards from Israel: Blooming in Winter by Sharona Langerman

Poetry, Postcards from Israel

It is mid-winter now.
Last week the Almond tree was still asleep
And suddenly five days later I saw her.
This beautiful princess in her flowered dress.
Glittering pearls in the sun
stitched with white and pink beads
smiling to the sky, happy in the rain
and calling to all the other trees
to come and join her in dance.
***
Sharona Langerman is an Israeli artist and photographer and lives in Kiryat Motzkin

I Choose to be a Tree by Jan Conte

Articles, Poetry

hires-1During times of challenge I choose to be like a tree in a windstorm, with its roots buried deep within the soil. Swaying from side to side, its branches stretched outward embracing whatever comes. Its leaves jingling like bells, sweetly saying “I am okay, I am okay.”

During times of challenge I choose not to be like a piece of debris in a windstorm, being whipped up into a vortex, spinning wildly with no direction or tossed from here to there with no roots, no safe place.

I choose to be a tree. read more