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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: AMICHAI, YEHUDA Matches Found: 778 Amichai, Yehuda Poet's Biography poems available by this author 1924 First Line: I was born in 1924. If I were a violin my age Last Line: If there are any winners 1924 First Line: I was born in 1924. If I were a violin my age Last Line: If there are any winners at all 1978 REUNION OF PALMACH VETERANS AT MA'AYAN HAROD First Line: Here at the foot of mount gilboa we met Last Line: Where there is no remembrance A DOG AFTER LOVE Poem Text First Line: After you left me Last Line: Bring me one of your stockings between its teeth Subject(s): Animals; Dogs A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION Poem Text First Line: On summer nights I sleep naked Last Line: On the day of the resurrection Subject(s): Fathers; Jews; Judaism A MAN IN HIS LIFE Poem Text First Line: A man in his life has no time to have Last Line: To the place where there is time for everything Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Transience A MEETING WITH MY FATHER Poem Text First Line: My father came to me in one of the intermissions Subject(s): Fathers A PITY. WE WERE SUCH A GOOD INVENTION Poem Text First Line: They amputated / your thighs off my hips Last Line: We even flew Subject(s): Body, Human ADVICE First Line: Advice for good love: don't love %the far away Last Line: New love %until nothing's left ADVICE FOR GOOD LOVE First Line: Advice for good love: don't love a woman Last Line: Nothing at all AGAIN LOVE HAS ENDED First Line: Again love has ended , like successful citrus season Last Line: Mixing and whipping the egg white with sugar for the child %clattering and clattering. AGAIN, A LOVE IS FINISHED First Line: Again a love is finished, like a successful citrus season Last Line: And whipping up yoke with sugar for the child, %clatter, clatter AGED PARENTS First Line: The aged arents visited their aging son Last Line: A lot of shame and grief AIR HOSTESS First Line: The air hostess said put out all smoking materials Last Line: She belongs to the conservative party %of those who have only one great love in their life. AKHZIV First Line: Clouds came from the south, the nile Last Line: And gray hair is gray hair ALL THE GENERATIONS BEFORE ME Poem Text First Line: All the generations that preceded me contributed me Last Line: But gassed me straightaway. / it binds Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath ALL THE GENERATIONS BEFORE ME Last Line: They would have burned me right away %that compels ALL THE GENERATIONS BEFORE ME First Line: All the generations that preceded me contributed me Last Line: They'd burn me right away. %that commits one Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath ALL THESE MAKE A DANCE RHYTHM First Line: When a man grows older, his life becomes less dependent Last Line: And god has taken it ALL THESE MAKE A STRANGE DANCE RHYTHM First Line: As man gets older his life becomes less dependent Last Line: And I knew that the hope of the dead is their past %and their past is no more, for god has taken it. ALMOST A LOVE POEM Poem Text First Line: If my parents and your parents Last Line: What's your name? / hannale Subject(s): Auschwitz, Poland; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) ALMOST A LOVE POEM First Line: If my parents and yours Last Line: What's your name? %hanaleh ALMOST A LOVE POEM First Line: If my parents and your parents Last Line: What's your name? %channa'le ALMOST A LOVE POEM First Line: If my parents and your parents Last Line: What's your name? Hannale Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews AMONG THE STARS YOU MAY BE RIGHT Last Line: You may be right, but not here AND AFTER ALL THAT -- THE RAIN Last Line: To the one who receives us and doesn't remember %the spring earth AND AS FAR AS ABU GHOSH First Line: And as far as abu ghosh we were silent Last Line: Whose end I will never reach AND I RETURN First Line: And I return to jerusalem. I sit on my seat Last Line: Among thee hills like shouts from the mouths of searchers AND MY MOTHER FROM THE TIMES First Line: And my mother from the times when they painted Last Line: I want feathers, feathers, feathers AND THAT IS YOUR GLORY First Line: I've yoked together my large silence and my small outcry Last Line: And that is your glory AND THE MIGRATION OF MY PARENTS Last Line: My death and an end to the migration of my parents AND THIS IS YOUR GLORY First Line: In my great silence and my small scream, I inspire Last Line: And this is your glory AND WE SHALL NOT GET EXCITED First Line: And we shall not get excited. Because a translator Last Line: To other tellers. Silence as admission. We must not %get excited ANNIVERSARIES OF LOVE First Line: Anniversary of love. A hymn from the forties Last Line: And not the face of the one he loved ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: HULEIKAT -- THE THIRD POEM ABOUT DICKY Poem Text First Line: In these hills, even the towers of oil wells Last Line: Was once an open palm and fingers Subject(s): Death; Middle East - Conflicts; Dead, The; Arab-israeli Conflict ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: HULEIKAT -- THE THIRD POEM ABOUT DICKY First Line: In these hills, even the towers of oil wells Last Line: Was once an open palm and fingers Subject(s): Death; Middle East - Conflicts ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: RUHAMA First Line: In this wadi, we camped in the days of the war Last Line: No one may enter it Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: TEL GATH Poem Text First Line: I brought my children to the mound Last Line: And forgive me for the things I didn't do Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts; Arab-israeli Conflict ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: TEL GATH First Line: I brought my children to the mound Last Line: Fleeting like this springtime, eternal like it too Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: THE SHORE OF ASHKELON First Line: Here, at the shore of askhelon, we reached the end of memory Last Line: To be alone in his death Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: WHAT DID I LEARN IN THE WARS Poem Text First Line: What did I learn in the wars Last Line: The white of clouds and the expanse of sky blue / and endless stars Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts; Arab-israeli Conflict ANNIVERSARIES OF WAR: WHAT DID I LEARN IN THE WARS First Line: What did I learn in the wars Last Line: And the stars that have no end Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts ANNIVERSARY OF LOVE First Line: Anniversary of love. A hymn from the forties Last Line: You once had. You will understand in years to come ANNIVERSARY OF MY FATHER'S DEATH First Line: When the moon is full Last Line: That calms me %father APPENDIX TO THE VISION OF PEACE First Line: Don't stop after beating the swords Last Line: Whoever wants to make war again %will have to turn them into ploughshares first. ARAB SHEPHERD IS SEARCHING FOR HIS GOAT ON MOUNT ZION First Line: An arab shepherd is searching for his goat on mount zion Last Line: Of a new religion in these mountains ARAB SHEPHERD IS SEEKING A KID ON MOUNT ZION First Line: An arab shepherd is seeking a kid %on mount zion Last Line: The beginning of a new religion in these mountains. ARAB SHEPHERD SEEKS A KID ON MOUNT ZION First Line: An arab shepherd seeks a kid goat on mount zion Last Line: The beginning of a new religon in these mountains AS AT FUNERALS First Line: After everything I do, they march Last Line: So he said and cried, and went his way, %as at funerals AS FOR THE WORLD Last Line: To some other place AS FOR THE WORLD Last Line: Some other place AS IT WAS Last Line: Of insomnia and eternity ASHKELON First Line: A sticky music flows slowly Last Line: But the soul no longer lives inside AT NIGHT First Line: At night, as in a tomb, a pyramid Last Line: A merry archaeologist - he has the light AT RIGHT ANGLES AT THE BEACH First Line: Footprints that met in the sand were erased Last Line: We have a common language AT THE MARITIME MUSEUM First Line: I saw clay jars covered with barnacles Last Line: And half a returning AT THE MONASTERY OF LATROUN First Line: At the monastery of latroun, waiting for the wine Last Line: Come on, now: poof, poof AT THE SEASHORE First Line: The pain-people think that god is the god of joy Last Line: All the conversations of the future, all the silences AT THE SEASHORE First Line: Traces that met in the sand were erased Last Line: We have a common language AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS First Line: The quiet man showed me around campus Last Line: To make them even more beautiful ATTEMPT TO HOLD BACK HISTORY First Line: Next to the king david hotel, I saw ten respectable ladies Last Line: Overripe fruit, into the police van. They screeched %like excited pigeons, then cooed and cooed. AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN THE YEAR 1952 First Line: My father built a great worry around me like a dock Last Line: To my room where the woman's body is heavy %and full of time AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1952 First Line: My father built over me a worry big as a shipyard Last Line: And filled with time AUTUMN IS NEAR AND MEMORY OF MY PARENTS First Line: Autumn is near. The last fruit ripens Last Line: And how they were AUTUMN IS NEAR AND THE MEMORY OF MY PARENTS First Line: Soon it will be autumn. The last fruits ripen Last Line: And that is how I remember %their words AUTUMN RAIN IN TEL AVIV First Line: A proud, very beautiful woman sold me Last Line: Against the direction of time BALLAD IN THE STREETS OF BUENOS AIRES First Line: And a man waits in the street and meets a woman Last Line: And he has decided on tenderness BALLAD IN THE STREETS OF BUENOS AIRES First Line: And a man is waiting in the streets and meets a woman Last Line: And he chose softness BALLAD OF THE WASHED HAIR First Line: The stones on the mountain are always awake and white Last Line: The thick telephone book of world history closes BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FAMILIES IN JERUSALEM First Line: Beautiful are the families in jerusalem: Last Line: Fuse girl, %timing device lads, %always sensative, so sensative. BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FAMILIES OF JERUSALEM Last Line: And all the time sensitive, sensitive, sensitive BEDOUIN GOES NORTH First Line: The second year of drought, and no love Last Line: As the lamb's wool I left there BEDOUIN IN LOVE First Line: No house accepted us Last Line: His son dreams of saying kaddish BEFORE First Line: Before the gate has been closed Last Line: Before we have nowhere to stand BEGINNING OF AUTUMN IN THE HILLS OF EPHRAIM First Line: At the side of the road that is being paved Last Line: Like good wine in the throat BEIT GUVRIN First Line: People scratched their names Last Line: To the dark in me and to the light. Words forever BIBLICAL MEDITATIONS First Line: When jacob rolled the stone off the well Subject(s): Bible BIBLICAL MEDITATIONS First Line: When jacob rolled the stone off the well Last Line: From his mouth, too soon Subject(s): Bible BIRTHDAY First Line: Developing %forty-five years developing Last Line: Around me and on trembling bridges over me BODY IS THE CAUSE OF LOVE Last Line: Of generations of luck BODY IS THE CAUSE OF LOVE Last Line: All the generations of luck BOTH TOGETHER AND EACH APART First Line: My girl, another summer's gone dark Last Line: Both together. And each apart BOX First Line: Once my salary wasn't transferred from the place where I work to my bank Last Line: Innermost heart, and I came up from the cellar and went out into the street BRIDE WITHOUT A DOWRY First Line: A bride without a dowry, with a deep navel Last Line: What a roman arena streaming with blood BULL RETURNS First Line: The bull returns from his day of work in the ring Last Line: Dry and gray, as though from a split mattress Subject(s): Animals BUT, WE First Line: Far away, the war started. But we Last Line: Remained there, the word 'we' moved somewhere else CAFFE DANTE IN NEW YORK -- 1 First Line: Four waitresses (one a lovely eagle) Last Line: From one place to another place CAFFE DANTE IN NEW YORK -- 2 First Line: Four waitresses talking in the tongue Last Line: And gleaming lies for a fast screw CAFFE DANTE IN NEW YORK -- 3 First Line: In front of the big window, they're digging a pit in the street Last Line: The world has changed CHANGES, MISTAKES, LOVES First Line: In the summer, in a big park among the trees, I saw Last Line: Perhaps death, perhaps life CHILD IS SICK First Line: The child is sick. The rain that brought blessing to Last Line: But I'll still make it, %if only I have the time. CHILD IS SOMETHING ELSE First Line: A child is something else . He wakes up Last Line: A child saves from death. %child, garden, rain and fate. CHILD IS SOMETHING ELSE AGAIN First Line: A child is something else again. Wakes up Last Line: Child, garden, rain, fate CHILDREN'S PROCESSION First Line: Upon the banners fluttering overhead Last Line: Like shirts on a clothesline; they arrived that way CITY IN WHICH I WAS BORN WAS DESTROYED BY CANNON Subject(s): Troy CLOSED ARE THE DOORS First Line: Closed are the doors that were to be Last Line: That needs to alarm no more, but just %clicks. CLOSING THE JAFFA PORT First Line: They closed the jaffa port Last Line: Close the doors of the sea COME WITH ME ON MY LAST ROAD First Line: Come with me on my last road Last Line: To do that which is straight. Straight is short. %so come with me. CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 1 First Line: Above the hotel gate, I saw a sign: Last Line: They start loving, their eyes aflame with joy CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 10 First Line: The body wants to lock up the soul as if in a safe Last Line: The key is in god's hands. Or simply lost CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 11 First Line: An afternoon session: 'god and the soul' Last Line: It would like a different soul? CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 12 First Line: God in his mercy and thrift may decide to grant Last Line: Or a locomotive that pulls all the cars of a train? CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 13 First Line: Evening session: to lie on your belly in the dark Last Line: To see stars more colorful, more lovely than those in the sky CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 14 First Line: The translators, men and women, sit in their cells Last Line: A wild honey under their public hair CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 2 First Line: A conference on inflammations of the eye. Tears are always delegates Last Line: That has no cure CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 3 First Line: A conference on language: colloquial, baroquial, poetic, pathetic Last Line: The malignant words, the benign speech CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 4 First Line: Conferences and symposia, too numerous to count Last Line: In their insulated bassinets on the maternity ward CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 5 First Line: A lecture on the soul. Live testimony. An animated lecture Last Line: And a god that doesn't fit you, and emotions, besides? CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 6 First Line: The translators flee their burning cubicles Last Line: And make their way to other, calmer conferences CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 7 First Line: A conference open to the public. The soul is formed before the body Last Line: An itch. Scratching reveals it, calms it down CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 8 First Line: Morning session: the body is a heavy stone that has dropped Last Line: To form the heavy soul at the bottom CONFERENCES, CONFERENCES: MALIGNANT WORDS, BENIGN SPEECH: 9 First Line: The body is the workplace of the soul Last Line: The body is the laboratory for experiments, inventions, innovations COURSE OF A LIFE First Line: Till eight days like any happy fly Last Line: Like any happy fly CREAKING DOOR First Line: The creaking door Last Line: And be a table %and be a bed. CZECH REFUGEE IN LONDON First Line: In a very short, black velvet skirt Last Line: Every year I discover: I have no defense Subject(s): London; Refugees DANCERS AND THE DANCED First Line: The dancers and the danced have all gone now Last Line: On the same flight, they thought-one way, one destination DANGEROUS COUNTRY First Line: Dangerous country. Full of suspect objects Last Line: Like papers in the wind DEATH OF ASSIA G. First Line: Half an hour ago Last Line: To understand my life, here in the bright light DEGANYA First Line: Water from last night in the puddles Last Line: Goes on resting in death DEIR AYUB, A HEAP OF WATERMELONS AND THE REST OF MY LIFE Last Line: Which remains, even when the dream is forgotten DEIR AYUB, A HEAP OF WATERMELONS AND THE REST OF MY LIFE Last Line: Which remains, even when the dream is forgotten DENNIS IS LEAVING TO BURY HIS FATHER First Line: Dennis is leaving to bury his father Last Line: Now he is living to bury his dead: %it's simple and clean, like in the bible. DENNIS WAS VERY SICK First Line: Dennis was very sick Last Line: He returns the burned matches %to the box DIAMETER OF THE BOMB First Line: The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters Last Line: A circle with no end and no god DO NOT ACCEPT First Line: Do not accept these rains that come too late Last Line: Be abram. Sarah will be sarai DOG AFTER LOVE Poem Text First Line: After you walked out Last Line: One sock between his teeth that once was yours. Subject(s): Jealousy; Love - Loss Of; Revenge DOG AFTER LOVE First Line: After you left me Last Line: Bring me one of your stockings between its teeth Subject(s): Animals; Dogs DON'T PREPARE FOR TOMORROW First Line: Don't prepare for tomorrow. Turn your face to the narrow alley Last Line: And is really yours %then bless ECOLOGY OF JERUSALEM First Line: The air over jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams Last Line: Lie in wait for their moment ELECAMPANE, JASMINE, VINE, AND OLEANDER First Line: Elecampane has no hope, but it has a connection Last Line: What will never be calmed Subject(s): Plants ELEGIES ON THE WAR DEAD ELEGY First Line: The wind won't come to draw smiles in the sand of dreams Last Line: Or a pattern of small flowers, a memory of childhood, high-stalked and thin-legged ELEGY ON AN ABANDONED VILLAGE First Line: The wine of august was spilled on the face of the girl, but Last Line: And uncovered it; and stayed in the valleys, forever ELEGY ON THE LOST CHILD First Line: I know how high the flooding waters came Last Line: Not found. Each one went on his way ELEGY ON THE LOST CHILD First Line: I can see by their mark how high the waters reached Last Line: Anything, and we went on walking. Each to his own ELIZABETH SWADOS First Line: You live in your permanent home Last Line: That didn't mean to be a knife END OF ELUL First Line: I'm tired of the summer. The smoke near the monastery of the silent nuns Last Line: And rain, when we shall be ready and shall not be END OF SUMMER IN THE JUDEAN MOUNTAINS First Line: End of summer in the judean mountains. The ground lies there Last Line: With the sound of dry branches snapping in the dead forest END OF SUMMER IN THE MOUNTAINS OF JUDEA First Line: End of summer in the mountains of judea. The land lies Last Line: With the sound of dry branches breaking in the %dead forest. END OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEASON IN EYN GEDI First Line: The archaeologists went home Last Line: Though she didn't scream ETERNAL MYSTERY First Line: The eternal mystery of oars Last Line: And other words like these ETERNAL MYSTERY First Line: The eternal mystery of oars Last Line: What was I doing a year ago today? %and other such words. ETERNAL WINDOW First Line: In a garden I once heard Last Line: Was in memory of another %lit window ETERNAL WINDOW First Line: In a garden I once heard Last Line: Which too was in remembrance %of another window lit. EVE OF ROSH HASHANAH First Line: The eve of rosh hashanah. At the house that's being built Last Line: And holding a severed hand and wiping his tears %with a potsherd EVERY WOMAN IN LOVE First Line: Every woman in love is like our mother sarah Last Line: Across from the front door.' EVIDENCE First Line: An abandoned tractor stuck in the mud Last Line: Make a great joyful light EVIDENCE First Line: An abandoned tractor sinking in the mud Last Line: Make a big light of joy EYES First Line: My eldest son's eyes are like black figs Last Line: God's in the eye business and the fruit business %I'm in the worry business. EYN GEDI PRESERVE First Line: I have to pay an entrance fee Last Line: And called the place: rooms FALL IN CONNECTICUT First Line: Leaves fall from the trees Last Line: And then to stone FALSE INTERPRETATION First Line: As in a shoestore Last Line: They interpreted your screams %falsely FAMILY First Line: I saw an old man. In his youth Last Line: And wherever I go, I shall go with him FAREWELL First Line: Face of you, already face of dreaming Last Line: And what was not the body's will not last FAREWELL First Line: Fare thee well, it was your face, and now the face of memory Last Line: And what was not of flesh, we won't remember FIELD OF SUNFLOWERS First Line: Fields of sunflowers, ripe and withering Last Line: The inside of man FIRST RAIN First Line: The first rain reminds me Last Line: Of ancient saints FIRST RAIN ON A BURNED CAR First Line: The closeness of life to death Last Line: And then no prayer at all FIRST RAIN ON A BURNED CAR First Line: Life close to death Last Line: And then without prayer FLOCK OF SHEEP NEAR THE AIRPORT Last Line: Was the only sound in the world FLOWERS IN A ROOM First Line: Flowers in a room are prettier than the seed's lust outside Last Line: That knew no boundaries FLOWERS IN A ROOM First Line: Flowers in a room are beautiful Last Line: I also make square pictures %out of round love that was without limit. FOR EVER AND EVER, SWEET DISTORTIONS First Line: Pictures of dead jews on the wall of a room in petah tikva Last Line: Dada, gaga, yaya, for ever and ever, sweet distortions. FOR MY BIRTHDAY First Line: Thirty-two times I went out into my life Last Line: In the vast desert FOR MY MOTHER Poem Text First Line: Like an old windmill Last Line: In one of the wars Subject(s): Mothers; War FOR MY MOTHER First Line: Like an old windmill Last Line: In one of the wars Subject(s): Mothers FORECAST First Line: It will be cloudy. There will be rain Last Line: In the valleys. There will be fog. We shall scatter FORGETTING SOMEONE First Line: Forgetting someone is like Last Line: That makes you remember FORGETTING SOMEONE First Line: Forgetting someone is like Last Line: And that means also remembering -- %by the light FOUR RESURRECTIONS IN THE VALLEY OF THE GHOSTS First Line: A woman who looks like my mother sees a man who looks like me Last Line: And how will they arise to life and where FREE First Line: She is free. Free from the body Last Line: Of all the generations that will come after her FROM ALL THE SPACES First Line: From all the spaces between times Last Line: When we die FROM IN A RIGHT ANGLE: A CYCLE OF QUATRAINS First Line: In the sands of prayer my father saw angels' traces Last Line: Rose into the sky, and into my wide-open heart FROM JERUSALEM TO THE SEA AND BACK First Line: I went from enclosed jerusalem toward the open sea Last Line: Among these hills like shouts from the mouths of searchers FROM MAN YOU CAME AND TO MAN YOU SHALL RETURN First Line: Death in war begins Last Line: From man you came and to man you shall return FROM SUMMER OR ITS END First Line: You washed the fruit Last Line: And in the dreams of strangers whom we didn't know together FROM THE BOOK OF ESTHER I FILTERED THE SEDIMENT Last Line: She's fine, she's fine FROM WE LOVED HERE First Line: My father spent four years inside their war Last Line: And night arriving, like an afterword GAMES First Line: Yes! Toss the words on the table Last Line: Closes like an envelope GIFTS OF LOVE First Line: I gave them to you Last Line: They're torn open, %torn, torn GIFTS OF LOVE First Line: I adorned Last Line: You tear them, tear them, tear them GIRL CALLED SARAH First Line: Sarah is writing letters GIRL GOES OUT IN THE MORNING LIKE A KNIGHT Last Line: Caught between two windows GIRL WHO WORKED AT MY BANK HAS LEFT First Line: The girl who worked at my bank has left. Because of her Last Line: She too and her journey without return. GIVING OF THE TORAH First Line: When moses sat Last Line: Do not do and do not listen GLASS AND MEMORY First Line: Goodbye, grapes, until next summer Last Line: Clumsy with pride and serious of soul, %die, each one alone, with no return. GOD FULL OF MERCY First Line: God-full-of-mercy, the prayer for the dead Last Line: Not just in him GOD HAS MERCY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN First Line: God has mercy on kindergarteners Last Line: Now and in other days GOD HAS PITY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN Poem Text Last Line: So that their happiness will protect us now / and in other days Subject(s): God; Pity; Children; Love GOD HAS PITY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN Last Line: So that their own happiness will protect us %now and on other days Subject(s): Children GOD HAS PITY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN Last Line: Now and in other days GOD HAS PITY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN Last Line: So that their happiness may protect us %now and on other days GOD TAKES PITY ON KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN Last Line: Now and in other days GOD'S HAND IN THE WORLD Last Line: With moon chalk on the road. %god's hand in the world GODS COME AND GO, PRAYERS REMAIN FOREVER First Line: I saw in the street on a summer evening Last Line: Prayers remain forever GOOD TIME First Line: A good time to meet a new Last Line: A slight confusion in the changing of the guards %at the seam GREAT CALM: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS First Line: People in the hall lighted so it hurts Last Line: A greaat calm: questions and answers GREAT FATIGUE First Line: Great fatigue like that of horses Last Line: Like the handle of an old box GREAT TRANQUILLITY: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS First Line: The people in the painfully bright auditorium Last Line: A great tranquility: questions and answers GREAT TRANQUILLITY: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS First Line: People in the painfully bright hall Last Line: Emergency and I entered into %a great tranquillity: questions and answers. GREATEST DESIRE First Line: Instead of singing hallelujah, a curtain Last Line: A heavy pull, like chains GREATEST DESIRE OF ALL First Line: Instead of singing hallelujah, a curtain waves in an open window Last Line: To feel a heavy pull, like chains GYMNASTICS TEACHER FROM PETAH TIKVA First Line: A gym teacher once lived in this deserted house Last Line: Than all the smells of war, and sweeter than the fragrance %of orchards. HADERA First Line: I never was in hadera' is like Last Line: Had I stayed my life would e different HALF THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD Last Line: Of a girl's kerchief, beside the mound HALF THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD LOVE THE OTHER HALF HALF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD Last Line: Of the girl, beside the ancient hill? HALF-SIZED VIOLIN First Line: I sat in the playground where I played as a child Last Line: All by myself HAMADIYA First Line: Hamadiya, memory of pleasures. The forties Last Line: You have to clear it away to start over again HAYDN, OPUS 76, NUMBER 5 First Line: You're not dead and I'm not dead Last Line: Warm stove, bed somewhat warmer HEART IS A CORRUPT STAGE DIRECTOR First Line: The last days of summer are Last Line: Love with sleeping pills. What have we come to HEAVENS ARE THE LORD'S HEAVENS First Line: The heavens are the lord's heavens Last Line: He gave to man, but whose is the table %and whose is the hand on the table? HERBAL TEA First Line: She poured herbal tea to soothe Last Line: The internal one she left intact HERE First Line: Here, underneath the kites that the children are flying Last Line: Is my flesh and my reward HERE First Line: Here, under the kites the children float Last Line: Is my own prize and flesh HERE WE LOVED HIRBET SAYID First Line: The flowering of the oak blurs Last Line: As then in hirbet sayid HISTORY First Line: A man all alone in an empty room Last Line: Like three angels from long, long ago HISTORY'S WINGS BEATING, THEY USED TO SAY First Line: Not far from the railroad tracks, near the painful post office Last Line: And the wise heart that will forget HOUR OF GRACE First Line: I once thought it could be resolved like this Last Line: In games that never end HOUR OF GRACE First Line: I used to think it could be solved this way Last Line: In games that go on and on HOUSE First Line: Paper flowers and real ones together Last Line: As sleep is death's sister HOW DID A FLAG BEGIN? First Line: How did a flag begin? Suppose there was something whole Last Line: And it, too, is a flag Subject(s): Flags - Israel HOW DO YOU MANAGE A ROWDY CHILD First Line: How do you manage HOW MUCH TIME First Line: I remember the rain Last Line: For such spiderwebs to take shape %how much time HULEIKAT--THE THIRD POEM ABOUT DICKY First Line: In these hills even the oil rigs Last Line: Was once the palm of an open hand, and fingers Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts HUMAN BODIES First Line: Human bodies are different from each other Last Line: Let my soul die with my body HYMN TO A MASSEUSE First Line: You are the rose of sharon, the lily of the valleys Last Line: Like god %without god HYMN TO SUMMER First Line: These days, god leaves the earth Last Line: And of the sadness of words to say HYMN TO THE LOVELY COUPLE VARDA AND SCHIMMEL First Line: Jerusalem in the week of the marriage of Last Line: Of the excited, collapsing world I AM A LEAF THAT KNOWS ITS BOUNDARIES Last Line: As from a quarry %already abandoned I AM A POOR PROPHET First Line: I am a poor prophet. Like a poor boy with only Last Line: Household chores. These are my visions %I am a poor prophet I AM BIG AND FAT Last Line: In the end, am forgotten I AM SITTING HERE NOW WITH MY FATHER'S EYES Last Line: My life %pulses close to a huge heart, always within I AT THE SEA First Line: I at the sea. Sailboats of many colors move Last Line: I am more prophet than her I CAME BACK ONCE MORE First Line: I came back once more to this place: Last Line: Like these skies above the mountains %which no longer seem like the face of anyone. I DON'T KNOW IF HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF First Line: I don't know if history repeats itself Last Line: The history doesn't repeat itself, %as I always knew that you wouldn't. I DREAMED First Line: I dreamed a dream: seven fat, fleshy girls Last Line: And I knew I wouldn't dream any more dreams I DREAMED A DREAM First Line: I dreamed a dream :in my dream seven maidens Last Line: An in the years after her, war broke out %and I knew I would dream no more. I FEEL GOOD IN MY TROUSERS First Line: If the romans hadn't glorified their victory Last Line: But I feel good in my trousers, %I feel good. I FEEL JUST FINE IN MY PANTS First Line: If the romans hadn't boasted about their victory Last Line: I feel just fine I GUARD THE CHILDREN First Line: I guard the children in the schoolyard Last Line: Their heads up in the sky, foolish as flags I GUARD THE CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL YARD I HAVE DEAD PEOPLE First Line: I have dead people, buried in the air Last Line: Do I still love hard I KNOW A MAN Last Line: Where will we be when these flowers turn into fruit you will understand I KNOW A MAN Last Line: And not of the face of the one he loved I LOST MY IDENTITY CARD First Line: I lost my identity card Last Line: And you no longer turn around to see %who I SAT IN THE HAPPINESS First Line: Your eyes withstood great cold Last Line: Your eyes count and count I SAW JASMINE BLOSSOMS First Line: In my garden I saw jasmine blossoms carried by the autumn wind Last Line: From the control tower. Try again, try again I SLEEP TONIGHT TO YOUR MEMORY First Line: I sleep tonight to your memory Last Line: Has one moment of grace every day %and truth. I THINK OF OBLIVION AS A RIPENING FRUIT Last Line: Blessed is the memory of my childhood. His childhood I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE SO -- AND YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE First Line: Near the train, we saw layers of rock in a row Last Line: I told you it would be so -- and you didn't believe I WALKED PAST A HOUSE WHERE I LIVED ONCE Last Line: Till the writing hand hurts I WANT TO CONFUSE THE BIBLE First Line: An airplane passes over the fig tree Last Line: I want so much %to confuse the bible I WANT TO DIE IN MY OWN BED Poem Text First Line: All night the army came up from gilgal Last Line: I want to die in my own bed Subject(s): World War Ii; Second World War I WANT TO DIE IN MY OWN BED First Line: All night the army came up from gilgal Last Line: But I want to die in my own bed Subject(s): World War Ii I WAS THE MOON First Line: My child is so sad Last Line: I was the moon I WAS WAITING FOR MY GIRL AND HER STEPS WERE ABSENT Last Line: And the beads of the horrible danger %around her neck I WASN€™T ONE OF THE SIX MILLION: AND WHAT IS MY LIFE SPAN? OPEN CLOSED OPEN Poem Text Last Line: I believe with perfect faith that at this very moment Subject(s): Aging; Jews; Judaism I WILL HAVE TO BEGIN First Line: I will have to begin to remember you Last Line: My blood inside. You won't see a thing outside I'M IN GREAT TROUBLE First Line: Carrots grow happily into the earth Last Line: God, I'm in great trouble I'VE ALREADY BEEN WEANED First Line: I've already been weaned from the curse of adam, the first man Last Line: I'm a man of shelter: the third man I'VE GROWN VERY HAIRY First Line: I've grown very hairy all over my body Last Line: Like a full cemetery I, MAY I REST IN PEACE First Line: I, may I rest in peace-I, who am still living, say Last Line: Rest me in peace IBN GABIROL First Line: Sometimes pus %sometimes a poem Last Line: I am the door %to his apartment IBN GABIROL First Line: Sometimes pus %sometimes poetry Last Line: I am the door %in his abode IF I FORGET THEE, JERUSALEM Poem Text Last Line: To the most terrible of voices / or silence Subject(s): Jerusalem IF I FORGET THEE, JERUSALEM Last Line: To the most terrible of voices - %or silence Subject(s): Jerusalem IF MY BELLY ACHES Last Line: The recoil is very strong, all the way back to childhood, and it hurts IF NOW IN THE MIDDLE OF MY LIFE Last Line: Who know their prophecies come true IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY First Line: In a foreign country you must love Last Line: I never saw animals laughing IN A LEAP YEAR First Line: In a leap year the date of your death gets closer Last Line: Is not required to say a single word more IN MY CHILDHOOD Last Line: And watered my thirsty sleep IN MY WORST DREAMS Last Line: When I lay next to you loving: my true face IN SUMMER BY THE SEA First Line: In summer by the sea Last Line: And at night, huge neon letters %spell men women. IN THE FULL SEVERITY OF MERCY First Line: Count them Last Line: And in the full severity of mercy IN THE GARDEN, AT THE WHITE TABLE Last Line: When it's cleared off the table IN THE HISTORY OF OUR LOVE Last Line: In nights of love with others IN THE JERUSALEM MOUNTAINS First Line: Here, where a ruin wants to be Last Line: Like wells and pits and underground springs IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER SUDDENLY A SMELL OF RAIN First Line: In the middle of summer suddenly the smell of rain: Last Line: Instead of a ticket, %and he's let through. IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS CENTURY First Line: In the middle of this century we turned to each other Last Line: But with my finger I wrote in it the letters of your name IN THE MIGRATION OF PEOPLES First Line: And though we lived in the same corridor Last Line: With oil and milk, wine and mead IN THE MORNING IT WAS STILL NIGHT First Line: In the morning it was still night and the lights were on Last Line: The heavy sediment stays in us forever IN THE MORNING IT WAS STILL NIGHT First Line: In the morning it was still night and lights were burning Last Line: Time will be light as froth, %the heavy sediment will stay in us. IN THE MOUNTAINS OF JERUSALEM First Line: Here where a ruin wants Last Line: Are just reservoirs scattered around %like wells and cisterns and fountains. IN THE OLD CITY First Line: We are holiday weepers, engraving our names on every stone Last Line: Two white auras surround their dark bodies IN THE OLD CITY First Line: Holiday mourners, we are name-engravers on stones Last Line: Two white halos around dark bodies IN THE OLD CITY First Line: On the wide stairs that descend to the western wall Last Line: My soul is rent and torn, like yours, but it is also beautiful %like lace IN THE OLD CITY First Line: We are weepers at feasts, carvers of names on every stone Last Line: To look at them: %two white halos around the dark bodies. IN THE ROOM First Line: I drink the juice of fruit Last Line: Silence, cancer of silence IN THOSE DAYS, IN THIS TIME First Line: Those days separate slowly Last Line: The nature of the heart IN-BETWEEN First Line: Where will we be when these flowers turn into fruit Last Line: You will understand in years to come INDIAN SUMMER IN PRINCETON First Line: Indian summer is jewish summer Last Line: Therefore, it is black now, like a picture %overexposed INSIDE THE APPLE First Line: You visit me inside the apple Last Line: Until the knife finishes its work INSTEAD OF A LOVE POEM First Line: As from thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk Last Line: As you were then INSTEAD OF A LOVE POEM First Line: From thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk, Last Line: But I've not forgotten you %as you were then. INSTEAD OF WORDS First Line: My love has a very long white gown Last Line: Are the instruments of a hard love INSTEAD OF WORDS First Line: My love has a long white dress Last Line: The tools of a hard love INSTRUCTIONS FOR HER VOYAGE First Line: Bend your head outside the window Last Line: Before the old. Sit on your return. Talk %love me INTO AN EXCAVATION First Line: Into an abandoned excavation Last Line: There will be many tears smeared on life %like on a good towel. IRON GATE MELTS INTO EVENING First Line: An iron gate melts into evening. Last Line: The face there is once more the abyss. IT WAS SUMMER, OR THE END OF SUMMER Last Line: Because it was embroidered with flowers Subject(s): Love ITZHAK'S LAST KIT BAG First Line: Toward the end of the war, I brought from the negev to the wine cellar Last Line: The fermentation began that will never cease JACOB AND THE ANGEL First Line: Just before dawn she sighed and held him Last Line: And he knew her name; and let her go JASMINE First Line: The jasmine came upon us, as always, from behind Last Line: Even the interpretations of the dream JERSALEM IS FULL OF USED JEWS First Line: Jerusalem is full of jews used up in history Last Line: And the eye looks to zion and cries JERUSALEM First Line: On a roof in the old city Last Line: To make them think that we're happy JERUSALEM First Line: On a roof in the old city Last Line: To make them think that we're happy JERUSALEM 1967 First Line: This year I traveled far away Last Line: Like quiet petals %my god! %my rod! JERUSALEM 1985 First Line: Pleas stuck in the cracks of the wailing wall Last Line: Hope you'll understand JERUSALEM ECOLOGY First Line: The air above jerusalem is filled with prayers and dreams Last Line: Waiting for their time JERUSALEM ECOLOGY First Line: The air above jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams Last Line: Like evil brides who have been rejected, %lying in wait for their moment. JERUSALEM IS FULL OF USED JEWS First Line: Jerusalem is full of used jews, worn out by history Last Line: And the eye yearns toward zion, and weeps JERUSALEM IS FULL OF USED JEWS First Line: Jerusalem is full of jews used by history Last Line: And the eye turns to zion and weeps. JERUSALEM'S SUICIDE ATTEMPTS First Line: The tears here do not soften Last Line: But she'll try again and again JERUSALEM, 1967 First Line: This year I traveled a long way Last Line: My stamen. %amen JERUSALEM, 1985 First Line: Scribbled wishes stuck between the stones Last Line: I hope you'll understand JEWISH TIME BOMB First Line: On my desk is a stone with 'amen' engraved on it, one shard Last Line: Amen, amen, and may it be his will JEWS First Line: The jews are like photos in a display window Last Line: But we sing. We still sing JEWS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL First Line: We forget where we came from. Our jewish Last Line: But it's the closest thing to roots we have JEWS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL First Line: We keep forgetting where we came from. Our jewish names Last Line: Human beings have KIBBUTZ GEVARAM First Line: In these low hills, lives that were meant to be endure Last Line: Austalia, australia KIBBUTZ GVAR-'AM First Line: On these low hills, a life meant to go on a long time Last Line: Voice: australia, australia KILLING HIM: A RADIO PLAY Poem Text First Line: Poet: again like a rebellious nation my heart Last Line: Will survive the test of time Subject(s): Poetry & Poets LAMENT First Line: The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters Last Line: Makes the circle endless %and godless LAND KNOWS First Line: The land knows where the clouds come from and whence the hot wind Last Line: Which won't end until messiah comes LANGUAGE SCHOOL First Line: I passed by an imposing house with a sign saying Last Line: And called out: my lord, from-the-depths LAST WORD IS CAPTAIN First Line: My head didn't grow anymore Last Line: The last word is captain LAST WORD IS THE CAPTAIN First Line: Because my head hasn't grown Last Line: The last word is the captain LATE MARRIAGE First Line: I sit in a waiting room with bridegrooms Last Line: And the cities of yehuda LATE MARRIAGE First Line: I sit in the waiting room with bridegrooms many years Last Line: And in the mountains of yehuda LAUNDRY CELLAR First Line: The laundry cellar in the big house. I love to Last Line: To return to this world LET THE COIN DECIDE Last Line: And do not ask for his name LETTER Poem Text First Line: To sit on the veranda of a hotel in jerusalem Last Line: What does he remember? Subject(s): Time; Love LETTER First Line: To sit on a hotel balcony in jerusalem Last Line: What do you remember LETTER First Line: To sit on the veranda of a hotel in jerusalem Last Line: What does he remember? Subject(s): Time LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION First Line: On summer nights I sleep naked Last Line: On the day of the resurrection LIFE First Line: Like high mountain climbers who set up a base in the valley Last Line: Never return, but to get to the peak with no weight, light, light LIKE A SHIP'S CAPTAIN First Line: Like a ship's captain who, after the dinner party Last Line: And a faint bluish light shines above the door. LIKE OUR BODIES' IMPRINT Last Line: None will help me LIKE THE INNER WALL OF A HOUSE Last Line: Never-again-to-be-inside LIKE THE STREAMS IN THE NEGEV First Line: I sit in a cafe in the afternoon hours Last Line: Like the streams in the negev, like the streams in the negev LITTLE RUTH Poem Text First Line: Sometimes I remember you, little ruth Last Line: The conveyor belt stands still. And they stood still. Amen Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism LITTLE RUTH First Line: Sometimes I remember you, little ruth Last Line: The conveyor belt stands still. And they stood still. Amen Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews LOOK, THOUGHTS, AND DREAMS First Line: Look, thoughts, and dreams weave above us Last Line: And ending as a root, in the darkness, in the womb LOOK: THOUGHTS AND DREAMS First Line: Look: thoughts and dreams are weaving over us Last Line: And to end as a root, in the darkness, in the deep womb LOST OBJECTS First Line: From announcements in the paper and on bulletin boards Last Line: On the table LOTS OF GRAPES First Line: Lots of grapes this year Last Line: Like wasps carrying their own death inside LOVE IS FINISHED AGAIN First Line: Love is finished again, like a profitable citrus season Last Line: Clattering and clattering LOVE OF JERUSALEM First Line: There is a street where they sell only red meat Last Line: By a manual of sex positions LOVE OF THE LAND First Line: And the land is divided into districts of memory and provinces of hope Last Line: His whole life in the moment of dying LOVE POEM First Line: People use each other Last Line: They grab one another and will not let go LOVE SONG First Line: This is how it started: suddenly it felt Last Line: Into my dark belly LOVERS LEAVE FINGERPRINTS First Line: Lovers leave fingerprints on each other Last Line: Just so they can say: he's the one! She's the one! LULLABY 1957 First Line: Let's fall asleep. Far from people's Last Line: Always awake, and we shall not worry LUXURY First Line: My uncle is buried at sheikh badr, my other uncle Last Line: To maintain such an expensive railway system. It's a luxury LUXURY First Line: My uncle is buried in sheikh badr, my other uncle Last Line: I cannot afford to maintain. Luxury LYING IN WAIT FOR HAPPINESS First Line: On the broad steps leading down to the western wall Last Line: But it is beautiful because of that %like fine lace. MAN IN HIS LIFE First Line: A man doesn't have time in his life Last Line: Where there's time for everything MAN IN HIS LIFE First Line: A man in his life has no time to have Last Line: To the place where there is time for everything Subject(s): Time MAN LIKE THAT ON A BALD MOUNTAIN IN JERUSALEM Last Line: From all that love poured out over me MAN WITH KNAPSACK First Line: Man with knapsack in the marketplace, brother Last Line: Page into the fragrance of remembering and forgetting MAN'S SOUL First Line: A man's soul is like Last Line: Of trains that will never run again MARK THEM WITH SIGNS First Line: Mark them with signs. Remember the clothes Last Line: Lament. Mark, mark them with signs MAYOR Poem Text First Line: It's sad to be Last Line: Who have become the slaves cof man Subject(s): Mayors; Jerusalem MAYOR First Line: It's sad to be Last Line: Who have become the slaves of men Subject(s): Mayors MAYOR First Line: It is sad to be Last Line: Who became slaves to human beings Subject(s): Mayors MEETING AT THE VETERANS OF THE PALMACH IN 1978 IN MAAYAN HAROD First Line: Here at the foot of mount gilboa we assembled Last Line: To pastures %where there is no memory. MEETING WITH MY FATHER First Line: My father came to me in one of the intermissions Last Line: And I played chess with my father, checkmate '48 MEMORIAL DAY FOR THE WAR DEAD Poem Text First Line: Memorial day for the war dead. Add now Last Line: Behind all this some great happiness is hiding Subject(s): Grief; Memorial Day; Sorrow; Sadness; Declaration Day MEMORY IN ABU TOR First Line: There on the border stood an old hut Last Line: Will do the same to soldiers %afterwards, in war. MEMORY OF LOVE -- IMAGE First Line: I cannot imagine Last Line: Pains come later MEMORY OF LOVE -- OPENING THE WILL First Line: I'm still inside the room. Two days from now Last Line: The will %years after a death MEMORY OF LOVE -- TERMS AND CONDITIONS First Line: We were like children who didn't want to Last Line: For the rest of our lives MISSION First Line: Tell them it's not just me Last Line: Come back to me MODERN GIRL First Line: I saw a modern girl and understood Last Line: No one will touch them MUSEUM AT AKHZIV First Line: A big anchor stuck in the yard. It will wait for eternity Last Line: At night. The opposite of flowers MUTUAL LULLABY First Line: For a while I've been meaning to tell you to sleep Last Line: Than a computer. So they'll let us be MY CHILD SMELLS OF PEACE Last Line: What god cannot %promise us MY CHILD WAFTS PEACE Last Line: What god cannot %promise us MY CHILDREN First Line: I don't know if I shall have a share in the world-to-come Last Line: And everyone does what is right in his own eyes MY CHILDREN GREW First Line: My children grew and flourished around tears and laughter Last Line: The world into a room and god into a little soul %inside the infinite body MY FATHER IN A WHITE SPACE SUIT First Line: My father, in a white space suit Last Line: Of his endless white death MY FATHER ON PASSOVER EVE First Line: Last evening I gave you the parable Last Line: And we shall not be %in vain MY FATHER TOOK PART IN THEIR WAR FOR FOUR YEARS MY FATHER'S DEATH First Line: My father, suddenly, left all the places Last Line: God will keep him there forever MY FIRST DAYS IN NEW YORK Last Line: Of someone whose god has died MY FRIEND THE PHILOSOPHER AND HANUKAH First Line: My friend uses a blackboard and chalk and rustling Last Line: They put damp cotton on burning hearts MY MOTHER BAKED THE WHOLE WORLD FOR ME Last Line: All the rare birds with beautiful plumage %flee from me MY MOTHER COMES FROM THE DAYS First Line: My mother comes from the days when they made Last Line: I want feathers, feathers, feathers MY MOTHER DIED ON SHAVUOT Poem Text First Line: My mother died on shavuot when they finished counting the omer Last Line: Her oldest brother died in 1916; he fell in the war Subject(s): Death – Mothers MY MOTHER DIED ON SHAVUOT First Line: My mother died in shavuot, at the end of Last Line: The remembrance and the forgetting Subject(s): Mothers MY MOTHER DIED ON SHAVUOT First Line: My mother died on shavuot when they finished counting the omer Last Line: Forget-me-not, forget Subject(s): Mothers MY MOTHER ON HER SICKBED First Line: My mother on her sickbed with the lightness and hollowness of a person Last Line: Hand that felt my forehead, in childhood MY MOTHER ONCE TOLD ME Poem Text Last Line: But my clutching hands remained / clutching Subject(s): Mothers MY MOTHER ONCE TOLD ME Last Line: But my hands, clinging, %remain %clinging Subject(s): Flowers; Mothers; Sleep MY MOTHER'S DEATH AND THE LOST BATTLES FOR THE FUTURE First Line: My mother white on her bed in the world Last Line: The lost battles for the future of her children MY SLEEP First Line: My heartbeat always beats me again Last Line: Where am I running MY SON First Line: Because of love and because of making love Last Line: Is the outing from which %they never return MY SON WAS DRAFTED First Line: My son was drafted. We brought him Last Line: Happily dashing around with no enemies, no camouflage MY SON, IN WHOSE FACE THERE IS ALREADY A SIGN Last Line: And all the generations %squeeze a bar mitzvah for you Subject(s): Children; Labor And Laborers MY SON, MY SON, MY HEAD MY HEAD Last Line: It means we can never %really love NAME OF THE PLACE TRIESTE First Line: I sat in a cafe in san francisco Last Line: Is now three sighs inside me NARROW VALLEY First Line: Young people picnic in the narrow valley Last Line: And the view will be smooth as oblivion. NATIONAL THOUGHTS Poem Text First Line: A woman, caught in a homeland-trap of the chosen people: you Last Line: And to sleep inside it, forever Subject(s): Jews; Israel; Hebrew Language; Judaism NATIONAL THOUGHTS Poem Text First Line: You: trapped in the homeland of the chosen people Subject(s): Jews; Judaism NATIONAL THOUGHTS First Line: A woman, caught in a homeland-trap of the chosen people: you Last Line: And thin-legged Subject(s): Jews NATIONAL THOUGHTS First Line: A woman, caught in a homeland-trap of the chosen people: you Last Line: And to sleep inside it, forever Subject(s): Jews NATIONAL THOUGHTS First Line: Caught in the homeland-trap of a chosen people Last Line: And sleep in it forever Subject(s): Jews NEAR THE WALL OF A HOUSE First Line: Near the wall of a house painted Last Line: After it, the whole length of the corridor %that has no end NEW YORK UNIVERSITY First Line: On the wide sidewalk opposite the university gate NEXT MILLENNIUM First Line: The flight attendants of the next millennium came to me and said Last Line: Like a lion of stone, and in the year 2024 %we'll celebrate your hundredth birthday NORTH OF BEER SHEBA First Line: The land is plowed up. Inside is outside Last Line: The territory between them is mine NORTH OF BEERSHEBA First Line: The soil is ploughed up. Inside Last Line: The terrain between them is mine NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO First Line: Here the soft hills touch the ocean Last Line: To the rhythm of the surf NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO First Line: Here soft hills touch the sea Last Line: In the rhythm of the breakers NOT FAR FROM DEATH First Line: In latrun, not far from the death on the hill Last Line: I greeted him when I passed by NOT LIKE A CYPRESS Last Line: Rises dust in a myriad of grains NOT LIKE A CYPRESS Last Line: Dust rises in many myriads of grains NOT LIKE A CYPRESS Last Line: Dust rises in many myriads of grains NOW IN THE DIN First Line: Now in the din before the silence Last Line: Will drown in soft sand forever and ever NOW IN THE STORM First Line: Now in the storm before the calm Last Line: Will sink in the soft sand, forever NOW SHE BREATHES First Line: Now she breathes quietly, I said. No, now Last Line: To eretz-israel. The death certificate %needs no picture NOW SHE DESCENDS Poem Text First Line: Now she descends into the earth Last Line: Into real heavens Subject(s): Death – Mothers NOW SHE DESCENDS First Line: Now she descends into the earth Last Line: Turns the earth %into real heavens Subject(s): Mothers NOW SHE'S BREATHING First Line: Now she's breathing quietly, I said. No, she's Last Line: Doesn't need a photo NOW THAT THE WATER PRESSES HARD Last Line: To sing the little song of spring NOW THE LIFEGUARDS HAVE ALL GONE HOME First Line: Now the lifeguards have all gone home. The bay Last Line: Like the rays of a sun resurrected for the night NOW TO BREAK Last Line: Without you %live %not NYU First Line: On the broad sidewalk across from the university gate Last Line: Every single day, like the healing waters of a spa OF A VANISHED KINGDOM First Line: Put your face to the wind Last Line: If we don't remain together, we won't remain at all %let alone live OF THREE OR FOUR IN A ROOM Last Line: Address and no one to receive them Subject(s): Human Rights; Windows OF THREE OR FOUR IN A ROOM Last Line: And remain sealed, like letters which have no %address and no one to receive them OH, IVY GROWING First Line: Oh, ivy growing on the wall of the room Last Line: For others' breakfast OLD BUS STOP First Line: I passed an old bus stop where I stood Last Line: Call him 'time.' OLEANDER First Line: A government that died long ago once decided Last Line: In the belly. Here. Soft. Touch it. Touch it ON MOUNT MUHRAKA First Line: Here where the laurel grows Last Line: Was impossible %you see: we died ON SOME OTHER PLANET YOU MAY BE RIGHT Last Line: You may be right, but not here ON THE DAY I LEFT First Line: On the day I left, spring broke out Last Line: To some other place ON THE DAY MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN NO ONE DIED First Line: On the day my daughter was born not a single person Last Line: You're a man of dreams, have made an exact little girl with %all the exact instruments for her life ON THE DAY MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN NO ONE DIED First Line: On the day my daughter was born no one died Last Line: You made a precise little girl with all the precise instruments for her life. ON THE DAY MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN NOT A SINGLE PERSON DIED Last Line: Though you are a dreamer, you made an exact girl with all the exact instruments for her life ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT IN 1967 ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT IN THE YEAR 5728, I PUT ON: Last Line: And will all those who prayed, I went home ON THE WIDE STAIRS -- LURKING FOR HAPPINESS First Line: On the wide stairs going down to the western wall Last Line: Yet it became more beautiful %like fine lace ONCE MORE First Line: Once more be my earthly kingdom OPEN CLOSETS ARE SAD Last Line: In a language far from all speech OPEN INTERNALIZED First Line: Open window. On the television screen colors Last Line: Prepares to take off OPENING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR First Line: Here, in the emormous gym Last Line: The cries of the firstborn who were slain in %egypt ORCHARD First Line: Here they stand, a living tree next to a dead one Last Line: And came back looking like me OUR FATHER JACOB Poem Text First Line: Our father jacob on the beaten track Last Line: For all that we know, he is still climbing there Subject(s): Jacob (bible); Religion; Theology OUR FATHER JACOB First Line: Our father jacob on the beaten track Last Line: For all that we know he's still climbing there Subject(s): Jacob (bible); Religion OUT OF THREE OR FOUR IN A ROOM OUT OF THREE OR FOUR IN A ROOM OUT OF THREE OR FOUR PEOPLE IN A ROOM Last Line: Address and no receiver OUTING WITH A WOMAN First Line: When after hours of walking Last Line: Where women are like this PACE LIKE THAT First Line: I'm looking at the lemon tree I planted Last Line: But he's all alone down there in his depths PAINFUL LOVE SONG First Line: While we were together Last Line: Each one at his place Subject(s): Love PARENTS LEFT THE CHILD First Line: The parents left the child with his grandparents Last Line: That's the way cooking works PARENTS LEFT THE CHILD First Line: The father and mother left the child with his grandparents Last Line: Will he get soft or harder and harder %like an egg? %that's the thing about cooking. PATH First Line: Joe simpson was a man I scarcely knew Last Line: A path that might lead nowhere, as he knew PAUL CELAN Poem Text First Line: Paul celan. Towards the end, the words grew Last Line: To take a breather and wipe his brow Subject(s): Death; Celan, Paul (1920-1970); Dead, The PAUL CELAN First Line: Paul celan. Towards the end, the words grew Last Line: The final concentration, the frothy concentrate %of the heaviness of your life Subject(s): Death PEACE OF MIND, PEACE OF MIND First Line: Peace of mind, my parents said, a person must Last Line: Just that, and not the kingdom of heaven PEOPLE IN THE DARK ALWAYS SEE Last Line: The stamp's glue on my tongue PEOPLE IN THE DARK ALWAYS SEE First Line: People in the dark always see those Last Line: I only remember the taste %of the stamp's bitter glue on my tongue. PEOPLE WITH NO FUTURE LOVE Last Line: And the great heartbeat of trains in empty halls PINECONES ON THE TREE ABOVE Last Line: The common denominator PITY, WE WERE A GOOD INVENTION First Line: They amputated your thighs from my hips PITY, WE WERE A GOOD INVENTION First Line: They amputated Last Line: We flew a bit PITY. WE WERE SUCH A GOOD INVENTION First Line: They amputated Last Line: We even flew PITY. WE WERE SUCH A GOOD INVENTION First Line: They amputated %your thighs off my hips Last Line: We even flew a little Subject(s): Love PLACE WHERE I NEVER WAS First Line: In the place where I never was Last Line: After breaking the first tablets PLACE WHERE WE ARE RIGHT First Line: From the place where we are right Last Line: House once stood PLACENTA OF LOVE Last Line: To live a second time PLAYGROUND First Line: The trees in the playground grew or died Last Line: In the playground during the vacation %you've seen longing. POEM First Line: As at the beginning of birth Last Line: Enough! No more! To rest like this POEM ABOUT REPAIRS TO MY HOUSE First Line: Taleb, with eyes that saw the gold of kuwait Last Line: Conflagration too is a language POEM FOR ARBOR DAY Poem Text First Line: Children are planting their shoots Last Line: And puts it down there in rooms / and leaves, alone Subject(s): Arbor Day; Trees POEM FOR ARBOR DAY First Line: Children are planting their shoots Last Line: And leaves, alone Subject(s): Arbor Day; Trees POEM OF SPRING First Line: Because of hesitations Last Line: Suddenly a jingle among paper rustling: %here! POEM WITHOUT AN END First Line: Inside the brand-new museum Last Line: Inside my heart %a museum POEMS ALONG THE HUDSON RIVER First Line: Along the hudson trade roads Last Line: I saw all that, and now I must go POEMS FOR A WOMAN First Line: Your body is white like sand Last Line: Spring found us POEMS FROM BUENOS AIRES First Line: Subtle tools %very subtle tools Last Line: At first, then: away from each other POEMS OF AKHZIV First Line: Broken near the sea Last Line: Hanging inside dreams and blood POEMS OF LIES AND BEAUTY: 1 First Line: Voices dispersed in the gardens long ago Last Line: On a wall and weeps POEMS OF LIES AND BEAUTY: 2 First Line: In an unfinished house Last Line: On a smooth, naked wall POEMS OF LIES AND BEAUTY: 3 First Line: A girl smells of a burned field Last Line: A stranger sits in a chair all night and sighs POEMS OF LIES AND BEAUTY: 4 First Line: A dead man rides his bicycle Last Line: And she too weeps before the mirror POEMS OF LIES AND BEAUTY: 6 First Line: A shepherd strolls in the woods, beautiful Last Line: A blue light lies in the night and feels cold POEMS OF RESIGNING First Line: I resign Last Line: What I didn't believe they would do POEMS OF SPRING IN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS First Line: It was not given me to linger at this lake Last Line: We imagine this will stretch out our days. We imagine POEMS OF THE HOT WIND First Line: A train pursued by oleanders Last Line: They reach black oil inside me POEMS OF THE LAND OF ZION AND JERUSALEM POEMS ON THE SHORE OF CAESAREA, SELS. POEMS TO A GIRL ON THE SEASHORE: 1 First Line: In lions' lair of sand Last Line: Of an unbuckled sandal POEMS TO A GIRL ON THE SEASHORE: 2 First Line: So truly at the sea Last Line: The bottom line POEMS TO A GIRL ON THE SEASHORE: 3 First Line: So truly at the sea Last Line: And you, have you %remained with me? POLITICAL POEM First Line: To erase the expression of coarse lust Last Line: Smuggled in from countries of freedom PRECISE WOMAN First Line: A precise woman with a short haircut brings order Last Line: My own shoes point toward it PRECISE WOMAN First Line: A precise woman with a short haircut makes order Last Line: (my shoes point toward it.) PROBLEM IN A MATH BOOK Poem Text First Line: I remember a problem in a math book Last Line: And know what I did well and what I did not fo. Amen Subject(s): Growth; Man-woman Relationships; Maturity; Religion; Male-female Relations; Theology PROBLEM IN A MATH BOOK First Line: I remember a problem in a math book Last Line: And what I did well and what I didn't amen Subject(s): Growth; Man-woman Relationships; Maturity; Religion PSALM First Line: A psalm on the day Last Line: Till my heart breaks, first heart and second heart. %a psalm QUICK AND BITTER Poem Text First Line: The end was quick and bitter Last Line: We could have become a silence Subject(s): Love - Complaints QUICK AND BITTER First Line: The end was quick and bitter Last Line: Had we remained together %we could have become a silence Subject(s): Love - Complaints QUIET JOY First Line: I'm standing in a place where I once loved Last Line: Just a little time left now for quiet joy RABBI NAKHMAN OF BRATSLAV Last Line: By which god pulled him out of all evil %I don't RAIN ON A BATTLEFIELD First Line: It rains on my friends' faces RAIN ON THE BATTLEFIELD First Line: Rain falls on the faces of my friends Last Line: And my dead friends, who %don't RAIN ON THE BATTLEFIELD First Line: Rain falls on the faces of my comrades Last Line: And on the faces of my dead comrades, who %no longer cover RAMATAYIM First Line: People sit on the porch Last Line: Sugar fell in the war REAL HERO First Line: The real hero of the binding of isaac was the ram Last Line: But the real hero of the binding of isaac %is the ram REAL HERO OF THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC First Line: The real hero of the sacrifice was the ram Last Line: Is the ram RELATIVITY First Line: There are toy ships with waves painted on them Last Line: I warned him RELATIVITY First Line: There's a toy ship with waves painted on it Last Line: He wants to be alone with his god: %I warned him. RELEASE HER First Line: Release her now Last Line: You became another, you cannot be returned RESURRECTION First Line: Afterward they will get up Last Line: At the back of her neck RETURN FROM EIN GEDI First Line: From the green and hidden lushness of ein gedi Last Line: Tomorrow at seven had yellowed and crumpled straight away %like the face of a child born old. RITUAL BATH First Line: Then we came to a ritual bath in ruins. A good man led us to it Last Line: And death in his prophet ROSEBUSH HANGS OVER THE WALL First Line: A rosebush hangs over the wall, witness to bliss Last Line: But a rosebush hangs over the wall RUHAMA First Line: Here in this wadi we lived during the war Last Line: So no one else can enter RUSTLE OF HISTORY'S WINGS, AS THEY USED TO SAY THEN First Line: Not far from the railroad tracks, near the fickle post office Last Line: And the wise heart that would forget RUSTLE OF HISTORY'S WINGS, AS THEY SAID THEN First Line: Not far from the railway track beside the painful post office Last Line: Over the foolish heart that still loved her %and over the wise heart that would forget. SABBATH LIE Poem Text First Line: On friday, at twilight of a summer day Last Line: I’ve gone to another life Subject(s): Sabbath; Jews; Sunday; Judaism SABBATH LIE First Line: On friday, at twilight of a summer day Last Line: And my father returned the lie when he died: % I've gone to another life. SADNESS OF EYES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF A VOYAGE First Line: There is a dark memory, the noise of children playing Last Line: The rest, sadness of eyes and descriptions of a voyage SAME EMBROIDERY, THE SAME PATTERN First Line: I saw a man wearing a skullcap embroidered Last Line: The same embroidery, the same pattern SANDALS First Line: Sandals are the skeleton of a whole shoe Last Line: Facing a setting sun SANDALS First Line: Sandals are the skeleton of a full shoe Last Line: Like the sun setting SEA AND THE SHORE First Line: The sea and the shore are always next to each other Last Line: The world will return to chaos SEASON OF RECOGNITION First Line: She grew so big and sad Last Line: Of being forgotten among the forgetters SECOND MEETING WITH MY FATHER First Line: Again I met my father in the cafe atarah Last Line: And laid his hand on the magazine. %he laid it down and rested. SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 1 Poem Text First Line: Mr. Beringer, whose son / fell at the canal that strangers dug Last Line: That drift away Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Fathers & Sons; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 1 First Line: Mr. Beringer, whose son %fell at the canal that strangers dug Last Line: That drift away Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 2 Poem Text First Line: As a child he would mash his potatoes Last Line: His body goes on being bathed and purified / forever Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 2 First Line: As a child he would mash his potatoes Last Line: His body goes on being bathed and purified %forever Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 3 Poem Text First Line: The tomb of the unknown soldier Last Line: By the glutton of hearts. Amen Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Unknown Soldier; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 3 First Line: The tomb of the unknown soldier Last Line: By the glutton of hears. Amen Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 4 Poem Text First Line: I came upon an old zoology textbook, / brehm, volume ii, birds Last Line: Oh my friend / red-breasted Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; World War I; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 4 First Line: I came upon an old zoology textbook, %brehm, volume ii, birds Last Line: Oh my friend, %red-breasted Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 5 Poem Text First Line: Dicky was hit. / like the water tower at yad mordechai Last Line: A little to the north, near huleikat Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 5 First Line: Dicky was hit. %like the water tower at yad mordechai Last Line: A little to the north, near huleikat Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 6 Poem Text First Line: Is all of this / sorrow? I don't know Last Line: Or where it comes from Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Cemeteries; Israel; Patriotism; Grief; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 6 First Line: Is all of this %sorrow? I don't know Last Line: Or where it comes from Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 7 Poem Text First Line: Memorial day for the war-dead: go tack on Last Line: Behind all this, some great happiness is hiding Subject(s): Middle East – Conflicts; Death; Arab-israeli Conflict SEVEN LAMENTS FOR THE WAR-DEAD: 7 First Line: Memorial day for the war-dead: go tack on Last Line: Behind all this, some great happiness is hiding' Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts SHADOW OF THE OLD CITY First Line: In the morning the shadow of the old city falls Last Line: Jerusalem is the venice of god SHARM A-SHEIKH First Line: Hard men, red-eyed Last Line: (like an empty house talking to an empty house) SHEEPSKIN COAT First Line: My good friend gave me a sheepskin coat Last Line: When it falls from the table to the floor SHORE OF ASHKELON First Line: Here at the shore of ashkelon we arrived at Last Line: To be alone in his death SIGNS AND EVIDENCE IN THE ORCHARD OF GAN-HAYIM First Line: Face of (a woman), Last Line: The well-known combination SINCE THEN First Line: I fell in the battle of ashdod Last Line: Of ashdod in the war of independence SINCE THEN First Line: I fell in the battle of ashdod %in the war of liberation SINCE THEN First Line: I fell in battle at ashdod Last Line: For I fell in the soft, pale sands %of ashdod in the war of independence. SINCE THEN First Line: I fell in the battle in ashdod Last Line: Of ashdod in the war of independence SIX POEMS FOR TAMAR First Line: The rain is speaking quietly Last Line: My blood with inherit SIX POEMS FOR TAMAR SIXTY KILOGRAMS OF PURE LOVE Last Line: And tickle you on the inside. You laugh, %I love you SLEEP IN JERUSALEM First Line: While the chosen people Last Line: An eternal heart burns red SMELL OF GASOLINE ASCENDS IN MY NOSE Last Line: Upon us and upon all lovers in autumn Subject(s): War SMELL OF GASOLINE IN MY NOSE Last Line: For us, and all those who love in the fall Subject(s): War SO I WENT DOWN TO THE ANCIENT HARBOR First Line: So I went down to the ancient harbor: human actions Last Line: And what drank its fill has long since rested in death SODOM'S SISTER CITY First Line: Jerusalem is sodom's sister city Last Line: The calm petals around the stem %god! Subject(s): Jerusalem; Sodom SOMBER SPRING First Line: A bright flower bloomed in the old fear Last Line: And under mine. It's somber spring. No break SOMEPLACE First Line: Someplace %the rain is no more, but never Last Line: If something falls to the ground SONG OF LIES ON SABBATH EVE First Line: On a sabbath eve, at dusk on a summer day Last Line: I've gone to another life SONG OF LOVE AND PAIN First Line: While we were together Last Line: Stuck in the world's flesh %each one in his own place. SONGS OF CONTINUITY First Line: Songs of continuity, land mines and graves Last Line: Died a long time ago SONGS OF THE LAND OF ZION AND JERUSALEM, SELS First Line: On the last words of trumpeldor Last Line: And they are the fuel for the advent of messiahs SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 1 First Line: Our baby was weaned during the first days Last Line: Never to close again SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 11 First Line: The city where I was born was destroyed by gunfire Last Line: A tenant, a crosser of bridges, a citizen SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 12 First Line: On the last words of trumpeldor Last Line: They are fuel for the coming of messiahs SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 14 First Line: Because of the will of the night, I left the land Last Line: As in the far north SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 15 First Line: Even my loves are measured by wars Last Line: Which are so much alike wherever you go SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 17 First Line: An armenian funeral on mount zion: the coffin Last Line: No savior in our time SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 18 First Line: The graves in jerusalem are the openings Last Line: That will never get built SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 2 First Line: The war broke out in the fall, at the empty border Last Line: Shatter to bits SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 21 First Line: Jerusalem's a place where everyone remembers Last Line: Where someone was resurrected SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 22 First Line: This is the end of the landscape. Among blocks Last Line: Those days, yet also like now SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 23 First Line: Nineteen years this city was divided Last Line: Like ships whose anchors stuck deep in us, and sweetly ached SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 27 First Line: The toys of an only god Last Line: With a little flag on top that goes round and round SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 29 First Line: People travel a long distance to be able to say: this reminds me Last Line: The loneliness of his death, the death of his loneliness SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 3 First Line: The october sun warms our faces Last Line: Tears are nails SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 31 Poem Text First Line: Four synagogues are entrenched together Last Line: Yes. These are thy tents, o jacob, in profundis Subject(s): Synagogues SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 31 First Line: Four synagogues are entrenched together Last Line: That will never land Subject(s): Synagogues SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 32 First Line: In the lot through which lovers took a short-cut Last Line: Is always beneath the level of the dead SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 34 First Line: Let the memorial hill remember instead of me Last Line: Let all of the remember so that I can rest SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 35 First Line: In the summer whole peoples visit one another Last Line: Sometimes they celebrate SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 36 First Line: Every evening god takes his glittery merchandise Last Line: And still not one prophet has come to buy SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 37 First Line: All these stones, all this sorrow, all this Last Line: That will come up and carry me up SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 4 First Line: I have nothing to say about the war, nothing Last Line: There's a god in heaven. Yes SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 5 First Line: I've closed myself up, now I'm like Last Line: In victory SONGS OF ZION THE BEAUTIFUL: 8 First Line: What did the man who burned to death Last Line: To let it flow SONNET FROM THE VOYAGE First Line: Gulls escorted us. From time to time Last Line: Splashed down, as if being wasted, on the sea SORT OF AN APOCALYPSE First Line: The man under his fig tree telephoned the man under his vine Last Line: The iron of hatred will vanish, forever SOUL First Line: I travel. Travels are the soul Last Line: Like the migration of birds. Travel, my car SPRING SONG First Line: In the morning I rise like a light plane Last Line: And I empty my body and say: %come, peace, into my heart. STATE OF AFFAIRS First Line: Heavy with the herd, like our forefathers in the bible Last Line: He had moments of happiness. He was seasons STATISTICS First Line: For every man in a rage there are always Last Line: Look, a bus full of empty people STEWARDESS First Line: A stewardess told us to extinguish all smoking materials Last Line: Of lovers of one great love in their life STRAIGHT FROM PREJUDICE First Line: Straight from prejudice you leaped to me Last Line: Like snow and christmas ornaments STRAIGHT FROM YOUR PREJUDICE First Line: Straight from your prejudice you came to me Last Line: But when you cried, tears shone in your eyes %like snow and christmas trimmings. STROLL IN THE BEAUTIFUL GARDENS OF THE VALLEY OF THE SON First Line: To protect the garden and watch over its fruits Last Line: And the next, eroded earth SUCH AS SORROW First Line: Should you realize so much, daughter of every season Last Line: Such as, come and hand me my last hour. Such as, sorrow SUFLA SPRINGS IN THE MOUNTAIN OF JUDEA First Line: I took two friends with me to find Last Line: And the rest of the heavens on this tired head. %caution! Nostalgic area! SUFLAH SPRING IN THE JUDEAN MOUNTAINS First Line: I took my two friends with me to find Last Line: Warning! Zone of longing! SUMMER BEGINS First Line: Summer begins. In the old cemetery Last Line: And a little %consolation warm SUMMER EVENING AT THE WINDOW WITH PSALMS First Line: Careful examination of the past Last Line: And the door is his prophet SUMMER EVENING IN THE JERUSALEM MOUNTAINS First Line: An empty soda can on a rock Last Line: More than equal SUMMER EVENING IN THE JERUSALEM MOUNTAINS First Line: An empty can on a rock Last Line: To sing into me. I and the world are equivalent %I am more SUMMER NIGHT IN THE KING DAVID HOTEL First Line: Five people were sitting on the balcony Last Line: Its sound barefoot and damp SUMMER OR ITS END First Line: The smell of geranium Last Line: For flowers were embroidered on it SUMMER REST AND WORDS First Line: The sprinklers calm summer's wrath Last Line: If it is full or empty %and its depth SUNFLOWER FIELDS First Line: Fields of sunflowers ripe and withering Last Line: Dark of a house, the inside of a man SUPPORT FOR MY BREATHING First Line: I smoke a cigarette Last Line: Forgotten, skipped my name SURPLUS OF FLOWERS IN THE WORLD Last Line: His face and his face is beaming SURPLUS OF FLOWERS IN THE WORLD Last Line: His face and his face is beaming SWEET BREAKDOWNS OF ABIGAIL First Line: Everyone whacks her with tiny blows Last Line: And will go on tearing and slashing away at her whole life SWEET VOICE FROM THE KIBBUTZ First Line: They put me in a small, clean room Last Line: To see the voices SYNAGOGUE IN FIRENZE First Line: Softness of spring in the yard Last Line: The girls, the tree, the crumbs TAKIS SINOPOLUS, GREEK POET First Line: Takis sinopolus has eyes the color of the sea Last Line: For you are tied to the mast TEMPORARY POEM OF MY TIME First Line: Hebrew writing and arabic writing go from east to west Last Line: And even peace will be weary and will be TERRIBLE LONGINGS HAVE SEIZED ME First Line: Terrible longings have seized me, like people Last Line: Many lit-up windows, many of her faces THE AMEN STONE Poem Text First Line: On my desk there is a stone with the word “amen” on it Last Line: A jigsaw puzzle. Child’s play Subject(s): Jews; Ancestors & Ancestry; Judaism; Heritage; Heredity THE BULL RETURNS Poem Text First Line: The bull returns from his day of work in the ring Last Line: Dry and gray, as though from a split mattress Subject(s): Bulls THE CITY IN WHICH I WAS BORN WAS DESTROYED BY CANNON Poem Text Last Line: How long / will my memories survive? Subject(s): War; Life Change Events; Memor THE SCHOOL WHERE I STUDIED Poem Text First Line: I passed by the school where I studied as a boy Subject(s): Jerusalem; Religious Education; Sunday Schools; Yeshivas; Parochial Schools THE SMELL OF GASOLINE IN MY NOSE Poem Text Last Line: Upon us and upon all lovers in autumn Subject(s): Farewell; War; Love – Loss Of THEIR EMBASSIES, HE SAID, WERE EVERYWHERE First Line: For who is Last Line: Unless it be in the full sense of the night %and in the full severity of mercy Subject(s): Human Rights; Judgments; Punishment THERE ARE CANDLES THAT REMEMBER First Line: There are candles that remember for a full twenty-four hours Last Line: A go-between, a buckle-man THERE ARE CANDLES THAT REMEMBER First Line: There are candles that remember for twenty-four hours Last Line: The mediator, the man-buckle THERE ARE CANDLES THAT REMEMBER First Line: There are candles that remember twenty-four hours a day Last Line: I am a middle man, a buckle man. THEY ARE ALL DICE First Line: With great love the people Last Line: That landed on the lucky side THEY CALL ME First Line: Taxis below %and angels above Last Line: I'm coming up! THEY LIED TO US Last Line: Screams louder %than the shed THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN LOST Poem Text First Line: From newspaper columns and notice boards Last Line: On the table Subject(s): Loss THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN LOST First Line: From newspapers and notice boards Last Line: With the telegram %on the table. THIS IS THE LIFE OF PROMISES Last Line: And this is the life of promises THIS IS THE LIFE OF PROMISES First Line: This is the life of promises. The greek priest Last Line: And this is the life of promises THIS PLACE First Line: This place will not console us Last Line: Is the shadow of another world THREADING First Line: Loving each other began this way: threading Last Line: Like cain, a boomerang from the field THREE TIMES I CAME TO ROME Last Line: Even the porta san sebastiano %I love THROUGH TWO POINTS ONLY ONE STRAIGHT-LINE CAN PASS First Line: A planet once got married to a star Last Line: Through two points only one straight line can pass THROW PILLOWS First Line: Sometimes I still hear the world Last Line: And I was their messiah TIME HAS COME TO COLLECT EVIDENCE First Line: When was the last time I cried Last Line: And his groin TIME: 1 First Line: Poems of continuity, mines and graves Last Line: Place, and the prophets died off long ago TIME: 11 First Line: How goodly are your tents, jacob. Even when there are no Last Line: In the butcher shop, in the souk, in the old city TIME: 12 First Line: Advice of good love: do not love Last Line: Till nothing's left TIME: 13 First Line: Shifra and batya promised Last Line: And the penis that brings joy %they don't TIME: 19 First Line: How did a banner begin? Let's assume there was something whole Last Line: They're a banner too TIME: 20 First Line: The radius of the bomb was twelve inches Last Line: To no end and no god TIME: 21 First Line: I am the figure of a jewish father with a sack on his back Last Line: And white sweet foam for future generations TIME: 22 First Line: What is it? An airplane at dawn. No Last Line: At the ancient window overlooking the valley TIME: 29 First Line: From the scroll of esther, I filtered out the sediment Last Line: She's fine, she's fine TIME: 3 First Line: On this evening, I think again Last Line: And how without pain, time TIME: 30 First Line: My friend, what you're doing now Last Line: To your body for the great bonfire where you will burn TIME: 31 First Line: I was weaned from the curse of adam Last Line: I am a man of refuge: the third adam TIME: 32 First Line: When I was young, the country was young too. My father Last Line: Like a feeling of falling before you fall asleep TIME: 33 First Line: Oh, my old, venerable teacher, life Last Line: Grows. And she will be I, and I -- she TIME: 34 First Line: The door of the house opened by mistake: Last Line: A turbulent waterfall. In the morning, calm water TIME: 35 First Line: In the garden, at the white table Last Line: Cleared from the table TIME: 36 First Line: I am like a leaf that knows its limits Last Line: Like a quarry. Now abandoned TIME: 37 First Line: Karl marx, cold mark that you are, Last Line: Is always a tear TIME: 4 First Line: My son was born in asuta hospital and since then Last Line: I am still the same man, almost with no memories TIME: 41 First Line: The evening is lying at the horizon, donating blood Last Line: A secret military installation blooms in the dark TIME: 42 First Line: These words, like heaps of feathers Last Line: We shall call to each other forever: 'we shall change!' TIME: 43 First Line: A hymn for independence day. So distant Last Line: Something %still moves TIME: 46 First Line: You carry the load of heavy buttocks and your eyes are light Last Line: Curled up in my dark brain TIME: 5 First Line: The aching bones of lovers Last Line: War is close. Amen TIME: 52 First Line: Jerusalem the cradle city that rocks me Last Line: And all my memories are closed yards on summer afternoons TIME: 54 First Line: Evening hours of the soul Last Line: Another door remains shut: through it, the silence TIME: 55 First Line: A trap rises from the earth on a summer night Last Line: The first morning light will set them off TIME: 58 First Line: The man crossing the field was a chief rabbi Last Line: Like rachel mourning her sons in her grave TIME: 59 First Line: Early in the morning, you lean on the wall of an old house Last Line: To lean on it the next morning TIME: 6 First Line: The soldiers in the grave say: you, up there Last Line: And the joy on the water TIME: 63 First Line: When a man is away from his homeland for a long time Last Line: Recycled to me in a convoluted way TIME: 64 First Line: I love these people in their tall house Last Line: And another one, and another one TIME: 66 First Line: Late in my life, I come to you Last Line: And one, a souvenir for me. And you went TIME: 68 First Line: You're small and thin in the rain. A small target Last Line: No crease, no stain, like the cursed summer sky TIME: 69 First Line: My son, the softness of your face already shows Last Line: Of bar mitzvah for you TIME: 70 First Line: In this valley, where many waters Last Line: Though it was not meant for it TIME: 71 First Line: He left two sons,' they say Last Line: Slated for demolition in jerusalem TIME: 72 First Line: My former student is in the traffic police Last Line: She even joins them! TIME: 73 First Line: What a man on a bald mountain in jerusalem Last Line: From so much love poured all over me TIME: 74 First Line: And I am always like this fleeing from hurt and pain Last Line: To the last pain that won't hurt anymore TIME: 77 First Line: My god, the soul you gave me Last Line: Until the smoke vanishes like smoke TIME: 80 First Line: Then I went down to the ancient port: human actions Last Line: And what was satisfied, long ago rested in death TIME: 9 First Line: What is it? An old shed for tools Last Line: No, it's a shed for tools TO A CONVERT First Line: A son of abraham is studying to be a jew Last Line: Whoever catches it--you'll be hers, hers, hers TO BAKE THE BREAD OF YEARNING First Line: The last time I went to see my child Last Line: Works only among the dead TO CARRY ON LIVING First Line: Oh, make my bed in the warm air Last Line: To avoid meeting %each other again Subject(s): Love TO CARRY THE WEIGHT OF HEAVY BUTTOCKS Last Line: Curled up in my dark brain TO DIE, TO BE TORN First Line: How many times does a man wait for another man Last Line: To die, to be torn TO FORGET SOMEONE First Line: Forgetting someone is like Last Line: But it's the light %that makes you remember. TO GATHER SOMETHING First Line: In mid-advance Last Line: To gather something TO HURL HAUNTING MEMORIES First Line: These days I think of the wind in your hair Last Line: Haunting memories into what was the present TO MY LOVE, COMBING HER HAIR Last Line: Let's lie fastened together, a double safety-lock TOO MANY First Line: Too many olive trees in the valley Last Line: Of my life, which could have been my true life TOURIST First Line: On a great rock by the jaffa gate Last Line: In these streets, %now I use it for %holy desire. TOURIST First Line: She showed me her hair turning Last Line: Ancient weeping undid our groins TOURIST First Line: She showed me her swaying hair TOURISTS First Line: So condolence visits is what they're here for Last Line: In cool blue bathrooms TOURISTS First Line: They come here to visit the mourners Last Line: Who bought fruit and vegetables for his home TOURISTS First Line: Visits of condolence are all we get from them Last Line: Brought fruit and vegetables for his family. TRAVEL BY TRAIN First Line: People travel all day long Last Line: Written in big white letters %let me die TRAVELS OF BENJAMIN THE LAST, OF TUDELA First Line: You ate and drank your fill. You arrived here Last Line: In wars and in this spring %till the final kiss TRAVELS OF THE LAST BENJAMIN OF TUDELA First Line: You ate and were filled, you came Last Line: Until the final kiss TRY AGAIN First Line: And my scream is made TRY TO REMEMBER SOME DETAILS First Line: Try to remember some details. Remember the clothing Last Line: To remember some details TWO DISAPPEARED IN THE HOUSE Last Line: Like an unfinished building TWO DISAPPEARED INTO A HOUSE Last Line: As in a building that was never finished TWO FRAGMENTS OF THE POPULATION EXPLOSION First Line: Two fragments of the population explosion Last Line: Are those about to part but how rich %they are in minutes and seconds. TWO GIRLS LIVE IN AN OLD HOUSE First Line: Two girls live in an old house Last Line: The other, sandals with thongs %wrapped round almost to the navel. TWO GIRLS LIVE IN THE OLD HOUSE Last Line: Winding almost to her navel TWO PHOTOGRAPHS First Line: When uncle david fell in the first world war Last Line: Will bridge that gap and be your exit-ramp TWO POEMS ABOUT THE FIRST BATTLES: 1 First Line: The first battles brought forth Last Line: Goes to the front TWO POEMS ABOUT THE FIRST BATTLES: 2 First Line: On the way to the front we slept in a kindergarten Last Line: And also in my eyes, even under their lids TWO POETS IN MEXICO First Line: Claudia is a multitude of jews Last Line: And the bee drowned in its own honey TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 1 Poem Text First Line: My son smells of peace when I lean over him Last Line: We suddenly realize as we grow the smell of peace vanishes out fo our lives Subject(s): Peace; Smells; Sons TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 1 First Line: My son smells of peace when I lean over him Last Line: Promised him that %which god can't promise us Subject(s): Peace TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 2 Poem Text First Line: My love was not in the war Last Line: Whose borders we shall never cross Subject(s): Peace; War; Middle Age TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 2 First Line: My love was not in the war Last Line: And of an enemy and lover %whose borders we shall never cross Subject(s): Peace U.N. HEADQUARTERS IN THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S HOUSE First Line: The mediators, the peacemakers, the compromise-shapers, the comforters Last Line: And then they set sail UN HEADQUARTERS IN THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S RESIDENCE First Line: The mediators, reconcilers, compromisers, appeasers Last Line: Resting %then sail off VISIT OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA First Line: Not resting but moving her lovely butt Last Line: No sound, departed and departed and departed VOYEUR First Line: A woman dealing with matters of the past Last Line: Collecting material for his visions WATER'S SURFACE WAY IT WAS Last Line: Of sleeplessness and forever WE DID IT First Line: We did it before the mirror Last Line: Like the summer ground below WE DID IT IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR WE DID WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF US Last Line: Turning, into the light and the darkness and the light. %we did what was expected of us WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO Last Line: We did what we had to do WE HAVE DONE OUR DUTY First Line: We did our duty Last Line: We have done our duty WE HAVE NO UNKNOWN SOLDIERS Last Line: Whose name-his name WE TRAVELED UNTO A SLEEP FAR FROM US First Line: We traveled unto a sleep far from us Last Line: Our meeting, in red joy, was illusory %like the meeting of sun and sea at evening. WEDDING SONG First Line: Your parents supplied the woman and my parents the man Last Line: From his ruined temple unto his heavens: %man must always remain in his life. WHAT A COMPLICATED MESS First Line: What a complicated mess in this little country Last Line: And I don't make anything WHAT ENTANGLEMENT IN THIS SMALL COUNTRY Last Line: And I do not make anything WHAT I LEARNED IN THE WARS First Line: What did I learn in the wars Last Line: The white of clouds and an expanse of sky blue %and endless stars WHAT KIND OF A PERSON First Line: What kind of a person are you?' I heard them say to me Last Line: Whose days are numbered. Hallelujah WHAT KIND OF MAN First Line: What kind of man are you?' people ask me Last Line: Whose days are numbered. Hallelujah WHEN A MAN'S FAR AWAY FROM HIS COUNTRY First Line: When a man's far away from his country for a long time Last Line: Through a complicated pipework WHEN I BANGED MY HEAD ON THE DOOR First Line: When I banged my head on the door, I screamed Last Line: Door, door. Your hand, your hand WHEN I DIE First Line: When I die, I want only to handle me in the chevra kadisha Last Line: On my life, that's what I want in my death, in my life, on my life Subject(s): Women WHEN I HAVE A STOMACHACHE First Line: When I have a stomachache, I feel like Last Line: There's a strong recoil, back to childhood, and it hurts WHEN I HAVE A STOMACHACHE First Line: When I have a stomachache Last Line: The recoil is fierce, back to childhood, and painful. WHEN I RETURNED THEY TOLD ME THERE'S NO Last Line: I was where-from, now here, soon where-to WHEN I WAS A CHILD Last Line: And wanted my thirsty sleep WHEN I WAS YOUNG, THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS YOUNG First Line: When I was young, the whole country was young. And my father Last Line: Just before sleep WHITE NEGRESS First Line: I'm longing again Last Line: Arguments about religion WILD PEACE First Line: Not the one of an armistice Last Line: Suddenly, an imperative of the field %wild peace WILDLING PEACE First Line: Not that of a truce Last Line: Sudden, from the field's own need: %wildling peace WILDPEACE Poem Text First Line: Not that of a cease-fire Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts; Arab-israeli Conflict WILDPEACE First Line: Not that of a cease-fire Last Line: Suddenly, because the field %needs it [or, must have it]: wildpeace Subject(s): Middle East - Conflicts WINDMILL IN YEMIN MOSHE First Line: The windmill never ground flour Last Line: Making out of us the bread of peace %for the generation to come. WITH ALL THE RIGOR OF PITY First Line: Count them. %you may count them. They Last Line: And all the rigor of pity WITH HER IN AN APPLE First Line: You visit me in an apple Last Line: Till the paring knife finishes its work WITH MY MOTHER First Line: My mother always calls me in Last Line: A pimp, and a smooth traveling salesman WONDERFUL BAKER First Line: I sat on the wide widewalk of cafe willheim in ramatayim Last Line: As a man and his death are one YEHUDA HA-LEVI First Line: The soft hairs on the back of his neck Last Line: He will sow YOM KIPPUR First Line: Yom kippur without my father and mother Last Line: The word 'broken' is broken YOM KIPPUR First Line: Yom kippur without my father and without my mother Last Line: The word 'splintered' is splintered YOU ARE SO SMALL AND SLIGHT IN THE RAIN First Line: You are so small and slight in the rain. A small target Last Line: Not a wrinkle, not a stain, like the cursed %summer YOU CAN RELY ON HIM First Line: Joy has no parents. No joy ever Last Line: Only those who really love me %know better YOU CAN RELY ON HIM First Line: Joys have no parents. Not a single joy Last Line: Only those who truly love me %know you can't YOU CAN RELY ON HIM First Line: Happiness has no father. No happiness ever Last Line: Only those who really love me %know you can't. YOU MUST NOT SHOW WEAKNESS Last Line: And people think it's normal speech YOU MUSTN'T SHOW WEAKNESS Last Line: And people think it's ordinary speech YOU MUSTN'T SHOW WEAKNESS First Line: You mustn't show weakness Last Line: With sirens blaring. %people think it's normal speech. YOU NEVER GROW UP First Line: You never grow up Last Line: Lying! Don't do it! %don't be a child. YOU TOO GOT TIRED First Line: You too got tired of being an advertisement Last Line: And how shall I answer you. And what shall I bring YOU WILL SPEAK First Line: Our days as in ancient times, in ancient times Last Line: And it opened. You will speak YOUNG GIRL GOES OUT IN THE MORNING, LIKE A KNIGHT First Line: A young girl goes out in the morning Last Line: Like the fluttering of a moth %caught between two panes of glass. YOUNG GIRL IN THE NEGEV First Line: A young girl is sitting under Last Line: Like the eyes of a paralyzed old man %following her--glinting. YOUR LIFE AND DEATH, FATHER Last Line: Now I am your guard |
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