Shul of Rock: Poems

Joey, Avi, and Eli pose at Ramat Rachel - Jan 06 (click to enlarge)

While rummaging through a bag today, I discovered a notebook. Inside were two poems I penned while travelling through Israel and Poland.

I don't claim to be a poet. In fact, I dropped out of a poetry class a few days ago because I found it to be more obtuse and inane than I thought possible.

The first poem was written while sitting on a bus that was zipping along an Israeli highway;

Take Me Away

The road is sane but hollow.

The heat is constant but despairs.

Slung guns and rock walls make the picture.

Big birds and little spiders make the scene.

My voice is buried in my body.

Mountains stare at me like large eyes.

The sun beats down on me,

and the sea beats the rocks.

Nature is abusive - a beauty.

The plane will take me away

Unless this place already has

To a time when I can sleep

To a room where I can dream

The second poem was written in the Warsaw airport after I recited Shacharit (morning prayers). My travelmates, Alan & Avi S. did the same. It was a form of provocation on our part. We wanted to stick it to the many anti-Semitic Poles that still populate the country. Here it is;

Go to Look

I wore my tefillin in the Warsaw airport today.

I recited the morning prayers.

People stared at me.

Some smiled knowingly. Some smiled confused.

Others were surprised. Others were scowling.

I don't care.

To represent my people, to touch a flicker of greatness.

When there are 300,000 bodies in a cemetery,

and no-one in their homes

You go to look.

With millions lost in smoke, ash, and ditches