New content for isolated times: a weekly poem to keep our spirits up. Read, listen, and enjoy.
It finally snows, five days after
the first day of spring, and we’re like,
where have you been, because by now
we’ve shelved the snow angels.
We were thinking more like cherry blossoms.
The fact is we’ve adjusted our calendars;
seven leap months in nineteen years,
because this is supposed to be spring.
So anyway we sit down together
David Harris Ebenbach, 2019
at a table where everything’s renewal,
renewal, and under the table our boots
slush the floor and leave salt footprints.
Well, we’re used to contradiction;
there’s salt water on the table, too.
We carry our tears with us, in little bowls.
We lug them across national borders
and the calendar. Meanwhile, the snow
follows us just to say, get over yourselves,
we all have our problems.
http://davidebenbach.com/goodies.html
Not only is David a dear friend of mine and a talented writer; this poem is a lovely hint of renewal and hope even as we look despair in the face. I also love the tiny lessons about Judaism of which too many are unaware: the symbolism of salt, and water, and calendars are mighty reminders of both commonalities and differences in time and space across religious and cultural traditions. Please go check out more of his work when you get the opportunity!
