April 17, '13                      

                                    Independence Day - 5773

I watched the Jewish boy walk the line of traffic
Selling blue and white flags - he walked against the wind
Putting them in his bag like arrows in their quivers.
He did his job as if it was easy - not a hard endeavor.
And today I saw the air show over Jerusalem's market -
Four planes like metal copies of the paper ones boys sail
Soared in close 'V' formations -
Scoring the sky with loud sonic racket.
'Proud moments,' some say, 'but there's a snag -
From a peace that's lasting we're still really far.'
'Not so - when you reach out your hand to buy a flag -
This very day you could hear the great shofar.'
And stock reply though it be, may 5773
Usher in Israel's ultimate victory.

      

                      March 31, '13


                 On Being Assigned to Write About Preparing              



        I find myself unprepared to write about 'preparing' -
        It's too much the commonplace norm.
        Poetry's disdain is unsparing -
        What have chores to do with the sonnet form!
        No sooner gets uttered so flat a denial -
        A fact appears like an illumination:
        It took nearly a thousand years of thought preparation
        For G-d to make the world a place that is viable!
        Now there's a paradigm without parallel,
        Whereby all mundane acts of preparing
        Become both necessary and invaluable.
        Woe to my mistake so glaring!
        The point is to take life's dull metal proper,
        And small-hammer it into brightest copper.