I Wanted To Write A Poem For Israel
I wanted to write a poem for Israel-
There has been so much here-
So many stories of dedication and sacrifice
So many tales of wanderings and coming home-
I wanted to tell the stories of some of these people
I could not do this properly
I was not good enough –
Israel is so many dreams and miracles
So much struggle and sacrifice
So much greatness amidst all the pettiness –
It is too much for anyone to tell-
Once we had great prophets and poets
Other writers may approach them
I cannot-
I wanted to write a poem for Israel
I was not good enough.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted To Write The Most Beautiful Poem
I wanted to write the most beautiful poem
The one beyond any music I had known-
The one which would reveal the changes
in yellows and greens
spring sunlight whispered to the trees
I wanted to write the most beautiful poem
The one which would tell the stories of all those I have loved and cared for-
I wanted to write the most beautiful poem
As a poem of Kindness-
I wanted to write the most beautiful poem
Of sublime and overpowering distance
Of stars when stars were dreams -
I wanted to write the most beautiful poem-
But I knew many other poems already written
Would always be far more beautiful than mine-
So I tried to write the most beautiful poem I could-
But the light outside
The world and its colors
The beauties we see and hear everyday
Said to me again and again,
'Walk more humbly with your God and do Justice and love Mercy also'.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Israel
You've had your troubles Israel
I've seen them all
But you put the writing on the wall
Israel Israel yeah
You know I've seen you fall so many times
I've cried for you and that's a crime
Israel Israel Israel
Where there's sand
Where there's beautiful sand yeah
You know you got a kind of feeling
That's just grand
Take me into your arms
Let me be with you
Israel Israel Israel
I like the smiles up on your people's faces
They make you feel warm embraces
And I want that kind of smile
that kind of smile
Israel you make the whole world think about you
And if they don't they'll find a reason
to shout about Israel Israel
You're the only one Israel Israel
Tell me all about it!
Tell me all about it
Tell me all about it
Oh take me into your arms
And make me feel your goodness
Be with me Israel
Hey hey hey hey
Oh oh oh
Take me into your arms
Let me hold hold you to myself
Oh I want to Israel
Israel Oh take me back into into your arms
Israel Israel Israel Israel
Israel
song performed by by Bee Gees from Trafalgar
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Why Always Are We The Ones To Blame?
WHY ALWAYS ARE WE THE ONES WHO ARE TO BLAME?
No poem yesterday
Perhaps a poem today
But without the joy of poetry-
A deep inner silence and sadness
A fear.
Why always are we the ones who are to blame?
They hate us so so much.
A bit more than half – a – century after the Shoah
And the one country in the world
Most hated most blamed most treated unjustly most lied about
Most accused of crimes its enemies are guilty of,
Israel only Israel Israel small Israel always struggling Israel.
May God help us survive and be safe.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Emmanuel, God With Us
We dim the light.
We stoke the fire.
We breathe the evergreen.
Young ones wait
While the old ones make up
Tales of how it used to be.
China dolls,
Candy corn,
Painted wooden toys,
Treasures found
To the wondrous sound
Of carolling the savior
Born to us on christmas morn.
Emmanuel, God with us,
Emmanuel!
Emmanuel, God with us,
The son of israel.
And still he calls
Through the night,
Beyond the days of old.
A voice of peace
To the weary ones,
Who struggle with the human soul.
All of us,
Travellers,
Through a given time.
Who can know
What tomorrow holds?
But over the horizon,
Surely you and I will find.
Emmanuel, God with us,
Emmanuel!
Emmanuel, God with us,
The son of israel.
And the years they come,
And the years they go,
Though we may forget somehow
That the child once born in bethlehem
Is still among us now.
(emmanuel....)
(emmanuel, God with us.
The son of israel.)
Emmanuel, God with us, (emmanuel.)
Emmanuel! (emmanuel.)
Emmanuel, God with us, (emmanuel.)
The son of israel. (israel.)
The son of israel.
The son of is...israel. (son of israel.)
song performed by by Amy Grant
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Not a Poem Poem
A Not a Poem Poem
I will not write a poem
For I am not a poet
I cannot makes things rhyme
I’ve tried for quite some time
So will I write a poem?
NO!
I can’t write poetry
I’ve tried to all my life
Once, I tried to write a poem
About a husband and his wife
It sounded really silly
So I crumbled it up into a ball
That’s why I decided
That I couldn’t write poetry at all
Am I gonna write a poem?
NO!
Well, I’ll try to write a poem
But it will be really bad
It will be absolutely lousy
It will be completely horrible
It won’t be up to snuff
People will say, “Who wrote this stuff? ”
Will my poem be good?
NO!
Can I write a poem?
NO!
Will I write a poem?
NO!
Well, what do you know! ? !
I wrote a poem!
And it’s a pretty good poem, too!
I guess I can write poetry if I try
The next time I’m asked to write a poem,
Will I say no?
NO!
What Is A Jewish Poem?
WHAT IS A JEWISH POEM?
What is a Jewish poem?
‘Shema’ is a Jewish poem
Perhaps the Jewish poem-
'Shmoneh Esreh' is comprised of Jewish poems
Nineteen prayers as one-
Our history is filled with Jewish poems-
From the beginning with Abraham and Sarah
Those who have given so much beyond our understanding -
Jewish poems everywhere -
Is each Jewish life a poem and a story also?
Or is it only those who give something to our people and history
Who are worthy of Poetry?
I have known many Jewish poems
People the great world will not know the names of
People who whether they walked humbly or not
Made the lives of others better in some way –
Kindness is perhaps the ultimate Jewish poem
And Justice also-
And Jewish poems are not without their contradictions –
As I write this poem in Jerusalem in the land of Israel
I think of the small Jewish world of Troy New York where I came from so many years ago
And miss so many people no longer of that and this world –
Longing for Israel for two thousand years was the Jewish poem
Living here now is a blessing and a gift
I thank God for.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Couldn't Write The Poem I Wanted To Write
I couldn't write the poem I wanted to write-
I do not know why exactly
Some days it works
And some nights it works
And some times it just does not work at all-
I couldn't write the poem I wanted to write-
There have been so many things in my life
I have wanted to do
And not been able to-
As I grow older
I fear there will be more and more simple things
I will not be able to do.
So much of what we are
Is in these failures-
I sometimes think how sad it is
That I have failed in so many things-
All my life I have known failures
And it will not end until I do-
I couldn't write the poem I wanted to write,
And this is not it, either.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted A Poem In The Early Morning-Even Before The Darkness Had Gone
I WANTED A POEM IN THE EARLY MORNING
I wanted a poem in the early morning
Even before the darkness had gone-
I wanted to hear words
That meant music
That said I was alive and could write-
I wanted a poem in the early morning
So that I could be justified
For the rest of the day-
Time and again I have written that poem
I write it now -
How wonderful when it flows as if it is real
I may never know that it is
But in writing it, thank God, I feel alive and blessed
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted The Sky To Write Me A Poem
I WANTED THE SKY TO WRITE ME A POEM
I wanted the sky to write me a poem
I looked up to its dark spaces, grey clouds, deep stars-
It said to me,
“You are the poem
wander freely
the world is forever open
before you.”
I looked up at the sky again
And the Beauty of the night
Was too great for me
To bear the Silence of.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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If I Had Only One Poem To Write
If I had only one poem to write
What would it be?
Gratitude to God?
Love of Family?
The dreams of Childhood?
Israel?
America?
The long morning and the longer night?
We are all so many poems
We struggle to find the true one-
Perhaps there is no way to be silent
And have only one poem about what we have been given.
Gratitude to God.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted To Write The Poems Of The Stars
I WANTED TO WRITE THE POEMS OF THE STARS
I wanted to write the poems of the stars
The poem of Beauty and Hope and Inspiration
I wanted to write a poem that helped others
Find Joy and Meaning in their lives -
I write my little poems
Often they are the sad truths of my own little life
Consolations for myself
I think may perhaps echo the souls of others.
I am not what I would have been
And perhaps not what I should be
I am what I am
What G-d has given me to be -
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted A Poem Greater Than The One I Had
I WANTED A POEM GREATER THAN THE ONE I HAD
I wanted a poem greater than the one I had
I tried again and again to write it-
I could only write the poem I am
It was not all I wanted it to be-
It is here now in these lines
Simple and clear and superficial and me.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted To Write The One Poem Everyone Would Remember
I wanted to write the one poem everyone would remember
Though I knew it had already been written many times by others-
I wanted to write the one poem
Which long after I was dead
Would say to me when I could not hear
‘You will live forever as Literature’
I knew I probably would not write that poem -
This is certainly not it -
I knew ‘Trying’ too is not enough
And yet
Here I am with my desires and my life
And as my father said the world is going by
And who am I to ever hope
To catch up with it?
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Where Is The Poem Of Penitence?
Where is the poem of Penitence
For the New Year?
While the majority of nations
Are vilifying and slandering Israel
While many working to destroy us
I write small poems about my own small pains -
I do not devote myself
To telling the truth of our life here
It may not be paradise
But among the nations and the armies
Israel certainly among the most decent
And in seeking Peace too more eager than most -
I who have lived here nearly forty years
Have not helped others see us as we are –
And in my writing have not been good enough.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Where Is The Poem For Israel?
WHERE IS THE POEM FOR ISRAEL?
I have lived in Israel close to forty years
I owe it so much
Yet I have not written of it truly-
And as the world turns Truth upside down
And makes us who so long for Peace
And have and would sacrifice for it
The Guilty Party-
And as the world joins our enemies in hating us
Distorting our history-
I feel how feeble and inadequate my own voice
In the writing that would defend it -
poem by Shalom Freedman
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I Wanted To Write A Poem That Would Exalt And Uplift
I WANTED TO WRITE A POEM THAT WOULD EXALT AND UPLIFT
I wanted to write a poem that would exalt and uplift
I wanted to give exuberance and delight to others-
But what I can write
Is less than this
And I must fumble in my own small way
My own small truths on the page
And if they are some meaning or consolation or goodness
To another
Say ‘Thank God’ for that.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Red Poem
I wanted to write a poem in red
with all the qualities that red has:
texture, light, sound, urgency and intensity that red has
Because I'm tired of blue poems or yellow
I wanted to write a poem in red.
poem by Lauro Marques
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I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private.
What They Will Say
Some times, I wonder if I write for the future.
That may seem like a strange statement to make.
Forty-three years ago, I wrote a poem
that at the time no one wanted to know.
Now it is my best-loved poem
read by countless people around the world.
Thirty years ago, I wrote two poems
and each one won me an award,
but at the time I wrote them,
no one wanted to know.
All of which makes me wonder
if what I wrote in my yesteryears
that then none wanted to know.
Could they all be popular now?
Today I started collecting and retyping
short stories I wrote twenty years ago.
At the time, publishers and agents
didn’t want to know.
Now twenty year on
I am wondering what they will say.
24 January 2009
poem by David Harris
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If You Want To Write A Poem For Me
IF YOU WANT TO WRITE A POEM FOR ME
If you want to write a poem for me
It must go beyond poetry-
I do not know if you can do that
I am not sure I am capable of perceiving it-
Perhaps I am already too old
And hearing a truly new poem
Is something that is left for others-
Perhaps too all I ever wanted after all
Is to hear my own poem-
And perhaps listening to you
Even if your poem is real
Will be far too much for me.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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