We are bewildered
by people tearing down posters of kidnapped children
their families just want
to come safely home
we are bewildered
by swastikas mushrooming on cars
and places of assembly
in the night
we are beweildered
by people setting shules alight
as they did some 80 years ago
we are bewildered
at torrents of hate
poured out on social media
and always justified
with some fanciful blood libel
we are bewildered
A note from the ball
Lord
you hit me for a six
now please have good hands
to catch me
_____________
a grave mistake
_____________________________
FB Oct 10 24
once in a lifetime expenses
FB Oct 7 2024
Invisibilise
Invisibilise
Invisible
Eyes
invisibilise decades of trauma
plo massacres of school children
Israeli athletes castrated
by Black September
Invisibilise the psychic wounds
the open woundings, a synechdocal sample: 1979
4 year old Einat Haran, skull smashed in by samir kuntar, who murders her father Danny Haran, baby sister Yael Haran suffocates to death while terrified mother tries to keep her from crying and revealing their hiding place.
upshot? upon release from Israeli prison in prisoner exchange kuntar awarded Syria's highest medal and honoured by Iranian President mahmoud ahmadinejad,
invisibilise the successful
torpedoing of the Oslo accords by
wave after wave
of hamas suicide bombings
blowing up teenagers at a
dischoteque
leaving dancers armless and legless
or pensioners at a pesach seder
hands trembling a little
as they navigate
spoon to mouth and then trembling no more
bits of flesh in the chandeliers
invisibilise
twisted buses, twisted busstops
charred bodies, only dna
may establish who they were
as they headed to market
to buy tomatoes and cucumbers
invisibilise the stabbings
teenagers taken to caves
their hands bound, bodies punctured
with knife wounds
invisibilise
bombs backed with rusty nails
and bolts to tear flesh apart
invisibilise 19 year old
Ori Ansbacher
raped and murdered while walking home
"the Zionist bitch deserved it, she had the temerity
to live in the land of her ancestors"
later the grove planted in her memory destroyed by Palestinian vandals.
invisibilise the psychological torture, the television threats
"we'll destroy you just as you were destroyed 75
years ago",
invisibilise the relentless cyber attacks
the gross charicatures, the demonisation, the dehumanisation
invisibilise the
pile on
by trade unions, professional associations, teachers, academics, artists, journalists, all suddenly and myopically focussed on their shadow aspects of self projected onto Israel. Safe. easy. Convenient. How many Israel lovers you gonna rub shoulders with at work or in your book club?
invisibilise the war in Sudan
8.5 million on brink of starvation
and Yemen, Xianjing, Tibet, Myanmar
no poems for them
no self righteous indignation
no resolutions in council
no marches in the street
invisibilise the ecocide
the daily missiles made in Iran
setting zionist planted forests ablaze and driving
terrified jackals and hedgehogs and lizards who manage to escape the flames towards the illusion of safety
the fruit
rotting on the trees
farmers unable to attend to their crops
invisibile the kidnapped,
the raped and then murdered
a red haired baby and toddler bother, whole family
snatched out of their home
whereabouts unknown
Invisibilise
Judih Weinstein Haggai, seventy years old
an English teacher, poet, peace activist who worked with children with special needs. Used meditation and mindfulness techniques to treat children suffering from anxiety caused by years of rocket fire that have plagued residents of the Gaza border area. murdered with her 72 year ol husband Gadi Haggai on October 7,
along with Thai workers, Beduin, Russian, French, US, UK, Ukranian
nationals,
corpses of murdered Israelis left to rot
in subterranean tunnels
invisibilise
the high on Captagon crazed Islamists
shoving machine gun barrels up the bloody vaginas
of the women they've just gang raped
or towing dissidents roped behind motorbikes
around the streets of gaza
throwing homosexuals and political rivals off
rooftops, enforcing a terrible homogenity and
preaching maediaval blood libels
and then
weave some kind of fairy tale that this
regressive barbarism
equals
"the resistance"
close one eye
so you only see gaza
not the other side of the border
so you don't see the North of Israel
depopulated by more missiles than the blitz
150 000 more
pointing at you
close one eye
so you only see the snippet
not the before or after
close both eyes
so you don't see yourself
staring back at you in the mirror
preaching and sanctimoniously stealing
your cheap and easy rectitude
one thing I know for sure
if you sat where Israelis sat
fucker
you'd be doing a whole lot
worse than them
From FB July 17 24
FB 20 August
Glad Tidings
The first cockroach
of spring
welcome brother
(or is it sister?)
16 Aug FB
when getting naked
the last garments
we remove
are
words
like
body
mind
_______________
Glimmers
being
emerged from
the sea
and when the time
was right
returned
____________
ה נתן
ה לקח
יהי ה מבורך מעתה ועד עולם
The Omnipresent has given
The Omnipresent has taken
beyond space and time
The Omnipresent is beautiful
_______
Love
washed her
up on the shore
and when the tide receded
took her back
____________'
FB August 14
when people ask me
what I do
I say
I am a juggler
___________
FB August 8
FB August 7
with the clouds
the grass
my breath
Falling awake
to the lecture
shines just as bright
Nisargadatta I Am That
We begin with
and they all lived happily ever after
and then slowly dial it back
to include
mom dead at 53
divorce
non viable piglets bashed into concrete floor (cheapest)
degenerative diseases
random acts of cruelty and seemingly
senseless acts of destruction
trajectory into addiction and self-harm
distorted thinking,
pregnant couple slain by teenage driver
double anal penetration for your voyeuristic pleasure
chained animal whimpering
but no one hears or acts
and we want to go back
to Adam and Chavah
and the lion and the lamb
naked and unashamed
in the garden of innocence
cogniscent that
The Self cares nothing
for name and form,
I yearn to see the holiness and the wholeness
the kindness that is mighty and invincible
the clarity and charity that dissolves madness
the rock steady reality beyond, behind, between, inside,
not indifferent to, but untouched by
this shadowy horror play.
___________________________
for four years
I've been driving home
past the same trees
quietly living their lives
without ever considering their
story:
how they came to be there
how they spend their time
are they pleased
that bird chose them
who else have they
witnessed
come and go?
_________
when I tell myself
my dog is bored
as she lies and patiently waits
I tend to feel guilty
but when I tell myself she's in dog samadhi - happy just to be, and being this thought comforts me
____________________
Samadhi - In yoga regarded as a state in which union with the divine is realised (before or at death).
______________________
Let me tell you this
my child
the body will
not survive
and yet
all is well
_______
the more isolation
the more addiction
the more addiction
the more isolation
'til something
gives
(FB July 14 2024)
__________________________________
A poem for sleepless knights
Sleepless knights
if they still believe
in chivalry
seek it from
a blister pack
toss and turn
watch netflix
stare at their phones
count windmills
paddle to the loo
fight battles
count their wounds
try to shed their armour
wait for sleep
or the dawn
___________
I meet a man
at spit bridge
of similar age
also walking with his
dog
who works for marine rescue
and who recently freed
a pelican that had become
ensnared in fishing line
that fishers carelessly
leave ( with rusty hooks)
on rocks and piers and jettys,
(he had to throw a towel over it's head, to calm it)
and we talked about how
we are always picking up
plastic rubbish at our
local beaches
before it goes back into
the ocean to despoil and
damage
and then we wished each other
well
and parted ways
and little did he know or suspect
that I am a Zionist
_____________
G-d is great!
stab
stab
stab
להיות איתך
כזיכרון
and the apparent
knower
are held in knowing
which can never
be known
I went to
a singles gathering
perhaps driven there
by something I could
approximate as too
much time spent
with my own
overly familiar
interior conversation
and ended up
trapped in an
exchange of phatic
sentences
with a group of large
women
in tent like dresses
with weathered faces
and deep gravelly voices
and hands like shovels
that could have knocked me out cold
with one punch
feeling light headed
as if I had slipped
rohypnol
into my own drink
I managed to escape
in the nick of time
______________
market forces
have got to
the honey suckle
the jasmin
and the frangipani
please tap
or swipe
here
to release
their scent
______________
First there was just G-d
then there was me and G-d
then there was me, a wife, and G-d
then there was me, a wife, a family, and G-d
then there was me, a wife, a family, a dog, and G-d
then there was me, half a family, a dog, and G-d
then there was me, a dog, and G-d
then there was just me and G-d
then there was just G-d
_________________
In the night
G-d scatters leaves
upon the carpet of the lawn
so that in the morning
the wedding
of first light
can take place
once again
__________________
everyone
is beautiful
in their own way
and everyone
has someone
who cared about them
at least once
the whole world
is built from loving grace
I don't know how
but I’d like to believe
that even cancer particles
are kindness
in disguise
______________
some journeys
need to be made on your own
in order to realise what holds both
together and alone
_____________
Confusion I
I've been to the west and I've been to the east
and I'm bloated with spirit like a warm bowl of yeast
I've been to the ashram, I've been on retreat
I've sat in the silence, I've stopped eating meat
I'm so enlightened I can't find my head
perhaps it has rolled away under the bed
I've been to satsang and I've been such a whore
and yet I'm no settled than I was before
__________
Cloud
I was on a plane
everything was smooth
then we flew into a cloud
soft and fluffy and pink.
I got lost in that cloud
whatever was outside
was unimportant
we lost altitude
I didn’t care
cloud, cloud and more cloud
oooooooh... cloud
then we popped out of cloud
or cloud popped out of me
the air was thin and clear
hopefully I scanned the horizon
for cloud
_________
Running the City to Surf
The city to surf I ran alone
without a true friend
without a true home
plasticup shards
formed an angry sea
dark footprint of human
loomed over me
from the barbies
the ex cows asked
wistfully:
"what has all this to do with me?"
_________
In Memoriam: Eli
I knew a kibbutznik
who worked in the laundry by day
And at night slipped little poems under peoples’ doors
regarded as eccentric,
as happens in small communities,
he was gossiped about
in the dining room
or after passing on the path.
he handed me a little booklet of his poems
photocopied and stapled
and I might still have it
somewhere
________________
Psalm of Immanuel
eyes
come back into your sockets
cheeks release
your taughtened lips
hands unfurl
your clutching fingers
mind please
drop your story
make way for the
King of Glory
________________________
PROMISE
the all new impressa
will take happy families
on holidays
turn into the driveways
of manicured houses
pull up at hotels
ford rivers and forests
on endless adventures
will never take you
to a job you hate
to a hospital
to a divorce lawyer
to a vehicle accident
to a cemetery
_______
I called the call centre
I was feeling so bad
but then had one of the most wonderful interactions
I've ever had
Guided by voice prompts I gave my date of birth and ID
eventually I heard a click, and a voice spoke to me:
"Did you know it said, "by taking your query online"
"you can save yourself a lot of valuable time"
Then they kindly played me a soothing tune
while I paced up and down
between the walls of my room
I boiled the kettle
made a nice cup of tea
watched a game show ep
upon the tv
did some gardening, fixed a tap
fed the dog who then
fell asleep in my lap
I started feeling a little perturbed
although I couldn't say why
I searched for help on the the website
till my eyes were red and dry
while they played more soothing music
and I clutched onto that phone
I suppose that song repeating
became a kind of glassy drone
on the plus side it helped me feel
slightly less alone
my eyes were getting heavy when after an hour or so
the music stopped and a human voice said something soft and low
"good morning,,,er good afternoon...is there anyone there...hello?
"I'm have this problem" I gabbled "at a really critical time"
"I've tried the website, I've read the manual, but I cannot get back online."
"oh we can certainly help you with that tonight
can I just grab your name if that's all right"
"My name is Shachar", I said, "it just stopped"
"I was working and suddenly the connection dropped
And it hasn’t come back, no matter what I’ve done
Rebooted, reentered, debugged - its just gone"
"My name is Michelle,we can certainly help you today
But first a few security questions if I may."
I relaxed, felt relieved, we were moving along
this woman would sort out whatever was wrong
"Your password please, ends in 13 zeroes...?"
"my password" I stuttered, "I don't recall one of those."
"That’s all right, your birth date and id number will do"
"But I’ve given them already, your cueing system asked me to
You’ve been very helpful, you’re awfully nice
But why do you have to capture things twice?"
"Its for your own safety, the calls are recorded
They’re logged and encoded, in case you’re defrauded
I gave her my id, I gave my date of birth
Gave my address, my weight, my girth
“thank you so much for that Suker”
“Shachar”
“Sorry, Sucker, now why were you calling this afternoon” she said
“Eeets because, medem, aish, my modem router, she is dead”
"Sorry, what did you say", Michelle's voice came down the line
would you prefer to call back at a more convenient time?"
"No I want this resolved now, I want you to sort it out!"
"All right" said Michelle, "there's no need to shout"
I looked out the window
I looked at a tree
It seemed to be much much
much calmer
than me…
(to be continued hopefully)
Moral Narcissism: “Pro Palestinian” encampment 2024
In the name of
tolerance
we exclude you
in the name of inclusion
we other you
in the name of diversity
we cancel you
in the name of humanity
we dehumanise you
_____________
I sent my poems
to a dying man
so that like pharoh
they would accompany him
into the next world
__________
LOVERS' LEAP
when the universe catches you
in its safety net,
and you bounce
up and down
a few times,
and sigh
and all the vigilance
stored in the body
evaporates,
and you wonder
why you waited
so long
but know it was fear,
and you glimpse
the ocean of beneficence
waiting to carry you
to places
more alive
than any
imagining
if somehow
in your clown shoes
you found it in you
to shuffle
to the edge
and fall
__________________
time took my black head of hair
time took my first guitar
time took away
my innocence
now if time will take
away my "my"
what will remain
and to whom will it belong?
_____________________
HOOKUP
Seeking immunity
diplomatic
or crude
seeking immunity
from covid
and flu
seeking immunity
from suffering
and pain
seeking immunity
from the transient
changeful
hook me up
with eternity
now
_____________________________________________
_______
come out Immanuel
from under your rock
come out and take
the air
come out Immanuel
from your pretty green eyes
come out to see
what's here
come out Immanuel
from inside your shell
come out and
wave your claws
come out Immanuel
from the cave where you hide
come out to Life's
sorrow and joys
__________________
_____________________________
Back to Basics
I chatted
about the romantic poets
short stories
journals, competitions
to
the young woman
with well manicured
nails
and tight pants
who works at
the chicken shop
next door
and is studying
literature
at university
and thought
how sweet
was the visible outline
of her cunt
___________
Poetry as Punishment
I have a friend
who went to a school
where misdemeanours
were punished
by the principal
by giving pupils
a poem to learn
off by heart
such as
"The Man from Snowy River"
or "The Lady of Shallot"
which then had
to be recited
to the whole school
at assembly
and while some things
have faded
the punishment poems
remain with them
'til this day
for me too
poetry is a punishment
for thinking and feeling
that has not been forgotten
until this day
_______________
No comments:
Post a Comment