Day: June 29, 2019
When words no longer work
When words no longer work wonder wish want When words won’t come compensate contrive When my voice breaks snaps sunders strains When I want to talk touch tenderly towards But you are not able about abandoned absent You are no longer listening live longing When I need to find a meaning In the shape form structure But I ‘m stranded Stuck Sucked under Swallowed Then I reach out to you I want your touch tenderness tranquillity temerity Sometimes words don’t seem enough endless empty emotive ejaculatory Yet words can console conjure quilt charm captivate cover. Stretch out your hand across the emptiness and touch me with your fingers friendship faithfulness forgiveness frailty fever touch my heart with words and I will hope expect await be grateful grave garbed in joy When words don’t feel enough When all we want is touch Or to see sigh sob sing Words can be shaped changed contorted controlled challenged Words are all we have To make us love To make us live To make us alive To make us sing To make us stand up To console,words may be
Almost
Just Enough
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The last Kabbalist in Lisbon
https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-life/arts-culture/literature/last-kabbalist-lisbon-richard-zimler
Beginning:
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is a compelling murder mystery and historical novel that uses the catastrophic events that overtook Spanish and Portuguese Jewry in the fifteenth century. These events mark an important period in Jewish history that is often overlooked. The book is a “crash course” in the nuances and details of the persecution, forced conversion, clandestine worship, expulsion, flight and renewal that marked the Sephardi passage. The period is often referred to as the “Inquisition,” though this name is somewhat misleading. Many of us do not realize the magnitude of these events which, for its time, was as devastating and earth-shattering to the Jewish world as the Holocaust would be some five hundred years later.
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I feel deep shame as a British citizen
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/29/jewish-novelist-uk-talks-cancelled
Extract
A bestselling novelist says he has been dropped from two literary events in the UK in recent weeks because he is Jewish.
Richard Zimler, author of the celebrated 1996 novel The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, said two cultural event coordinators had terminated negotiations on publicising his new novel because they feared a backlash from anti-Israel campaigners. Zimler has no connections with or family in Israel.
The author’s personal publicist, who asked not to be named, confirmed that two organisations had pulled out of initially enthusiastic discussions about events with Zimler, whose latest book The Gospel According to Lazarus was published in April. They feared his Jewishness would alienate Palestinian sympathisers among their clientele and could result in protests, the publicist said
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As the mighty bull said to the cow
To suffer used to mean to let, allow
As the mighty bull said to the cow
But we won’t suffer pain without despair
Like the poisoned nits feel in your hair
To ask for what you got is villains’ talk
To wear a mini dress is women’s right
Men can wear them too if they desire
Though hairy legs are bad for serious liars
What about the ants that live with me
Is it right to offer them some tea?
Spider’s webs are seen as cruel and wrong
You prefer the houseflies in a throng?
We each must decide what we dislike
Are we panic stricken by our plight?
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Enjoy,Endure
Enjoyment is the happy side of life
Endurance is hard work , we hate the pain
In the night the ghastly ghosts arrive
In golden sun the bees buzz round the hive
Enduring needed darkness , we see plain
Enjoyment is not attained by Western lives
In Bangladesh, our clothes are made by slaves
We choose deafness as they suffer,groan
In the night revenging ghosts arrive
Up the sea will rise in giant waves
It drowns the poor and weak ,does Darwin mourn?
Endurance makes the poor die under strain
The Jews of Europe had no holy graves
Now they are accused of plots again
In the night, will Nazi ghosts arrive?
When we die what will of us remain?
Grenfell Tower and Brexit leave their stain
By trauma disenfranchised ,unadorned
The ghosts of the unborn will scream in scorn
How my heart sings 