tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59456542445388976992023-06-20T21:09:32.318-07:00 Supernal Factors KJ Hannah GreenbergThe Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945654244538897699.post-52913813924918550312011-12-11T05:27:00.001-08:002011-12-11T05:34:38.733-08:00<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The Boss’ Orchestrated Metamorphoses</strong></span><br />
<br />
The Boss’s orchestrated metamorphoses,<br />
Ongoing creation,<br />
Zapped everything into place,<br />
Over days. <br />
Period.<br />
<br />
Set into motion,<br />
Various catalysts,<br />
Resulting in His Desires,<br />
Effecting broad to specific.<br />
Simultaneously, <br />
Instantaneously, <br />
And, concurrently, nonimmediately, <br />
<br />
Aboriginal scars traveled internationally, <br />
Under-recognized in regions remanded for romance<br />
Or, for unmanageable fear.<br />
<br />
Sages know water vanquishes fire, <br />
Flame blasts earth,<br />
Dirt distorts windy columns, <br />
Gusts displace oceans of truth-birthed passages.<br />
Paper. Scissors. Stone.<br />
<br />
Our personal development grows in this way, too.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Safta’s Brassiere</strong></span><br />
<br />
Safta’s brassiere, all hooks and eyes,<br />
From her aging bundles to well past her ribs,<br />
Befuddled any young girl tasked to aid her.<br />
<br />
So baffling were her corseting clothes<br />
That we hid, feigned ill, ran away,<br />
For five minutes, to avoid helping.<br />
<br />
The undergarments of wealthier women<br />
Snugged them correctly. Yet, our<br />
Grandmom was pure immigrant.<br />
<br />
Such engineering, as was required to suspend <br />
Her gorge, brought forth worse fears<br />
Than fishing her dentures from glassware.<br />
<br />
Even rubbing her four limbs’ of liver spots<br />
Seemed tame, relative to bounding, reorienting, <br />
Her matronly bosom in artificial cups.<br />
<br />
Forty years ago, such harnessing<br />
Was de rigour; stiffened camisoles, also <br />
Wide bands, meant you were no “greenhorn.” <br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Lake Wyola’s Mile High Farm: </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Sociology in America</span></strong><br />
<br />
Lake Wyola’s Mile High Farm<br />
All dirty calico cats, and blanket-wrapped horses,<br />
Seems ocean away, off limits, prohibitive,<br />
To all but melting snow.<br />
<br />
Birmingham’s Corner’s Cinema patrons, <br />
Plus Ma’s second load of plaid shirts, dungarees, aprons, socks.<br />
The family’s heirloom quilt, squared against intergenerational angst,<br />
Press horizons for more cycles.<br />
<br />
As youth, we loped stretches of undeveloped property.<br />
No one but raspberry bushes witnessed our kisses. <br />
Years later, that brush gave way to dirt bikes, then condominiums.<br />
You married a university girl.<br />
<br />
My grandfather, when a boy,<br />
Was secured, by Danish men,<br />
In a haystack for foreign Jews.<br />
He was sired by fright and longing.<br />
<br />
War years later, weathered by more than cows,<br />
Such family bounty slipped to America.<br />
Where excited acrimony nurtured the remnants.<br />
Turning pride to denial. <br />
<br />
I was raised as much a New England girl<br />
As those blue-eyed Mayflower descendents.<br />
Our pregnancy brought hope of futures.<br />
Anti-Semitism wears so many faces.<br />
<br />
Weathered silos and taxes fully paid<br />
Are pittance against blue blood. <br />
My forbearers’ discoveries resurface<br />
In the Berkshire Hills.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>When Bringing the Shoah</strong></span><br />
<br />
Recorded testimonies, survivors, further witnesses<br />
Die or fade otherwise,<br />
<br />
No matter the celebrity, euros, and dollars,<br />
Raised on behalf of certain “social mistakes.”<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, media-savvy, official-looking, anti-Semites popularize<br />
The proffering of “rhetoric of change.”<br />
<br />
Eschatology, history, plus common sense, prove<br />
Such cityscapes reflect not collective but individual adjustments.<br />
<br />
Without crusading monks, brown shirts, red ghutras, <br />
Catastrophic upheavals infiltrate Yiddishe wellbeing, anyway.<br />
<br />
Jewish lives are determined by the words, thoughts, and deeds,<br />
Espoused entirely by the individuals of our Klal.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>In a Jerusalem Women’s Gym: </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Jews, Arabs and Ellen’s 1,000th Show </strong></span><br />
<br />
Funny, it is when,<br />
Many frum ladies spend,<br />
Hosts of hours treading near,<br />
Unmasked, womanly emirs,<br />
Watching a shared, flat screen,<br />
Where a theatric queen,<br />
Out as a lesbian,<br />
Celebrates a TV trend.<br />
<br />
Exercise machines are meant,<br />
For health or beauty’s near advent,<br />
Religious women’s ancient rules,<br />
Include many impressive ligules,<br />
Concerning locks, lights, and limbs,<br />
Plus viewing such unseemly things.<br />
By and large, old-fashioned gals, <br />
Support no wicked, strange cabal.<br />
<br />
Yet, in one Yerushalmi gym,<br />
It seems the place where modest sin,<br />
Like flicking through the media,<br />
While working thighs’ posteriors,<br />
Is reduced in clients’ eyes,<br />
To something surely rationalized,<br />
As striding far from common hate;<br />
On Ellen’s deeds, rivals relate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Coleslaw in the Holy City</span></strong><br />
<br />
Chassidut’s lean words matter <br />
Abounding, repletely imploring Klal Yisrael to act,<br />
Now, immediately.<br />
Offerings fall over private thresholds, <br />
Filled with all manners of achdut.<br />
<br />
In a crevice, where lizards play, <br />
Capers also grow.<br />
Someone’s boyfriend trips upstairs drunk<br />
Facing guests unaware of “magic lines,” <br />
Beholden to no female footfall.<br />
<br />
Our broken cartons fail to explain<br />
How kin as packers, shippers, hired help<br />
Can charge so much. <br />
Expensive paper bits often bring<br />
No newcomer-measured happiness.<br />
<br />
I prefer sharing seats with strangers,<br />
Like ones clasping hands above Russian, <br />
Old Persian, or English, for reasons of holding <br />
Each and every kiss of Hashem,<br />
When springing hearts home to Shemyim.<br />
<br />
In general, neshemot shy from social <br />
Hallucinations sipped slowly after sweet hagafen.<br />
Lives sing out oddly.<br />
Night blinks away the sun’s wheelchair forever.<br />
We make coleslaw in the Holy City.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Millipedes Matter in Ber Sheva</strong></span><br />
<br />
Millipedes matter in Ber Sheva.<br />
In Ramat Gan, people worry on snakes.<br />
Scorpions occupy minds in Arad.<br />
<br />
Cuneiform-like<br />
She telegraphed,<br />
Electronic-pulsed<br />
Bytes across the water.<br />
<br />
Mary’s lamb tasted<br />
Luscious, sliced on laffa.<br />
I added skhug to mine.<br />
<br />
Missiles may blow<br />
Apart more than nations, unless<br />
Governments press rivals.<br />
Notice the kismet of innocents.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Jerusalem’s July Lilacs</span></strong><br />
<br />
Why lilacs bloom here, in July, remains beyond mortal capacity.<br />
We know only that holy soil, which coats Jerusalem, brings sanguine <br />
Behaviors; burnings, brandings, the throwing of stones,<br />
Among Middle Eastern arroyos, indigenous olives, grapes, figs. <br />
<br />
Social ablation sets select sentinels scurrying past parameters.<br />
Muddied individuals’ roles, confused institutional limits, sparrows, grow shaky<br />
Adults; affected by rotgut, stymied by powders, disenchanted with bread,<br />
Where devoid of reward trees, gum-backed stars, increases in allowance.<br />
<br />
Stodgy accountability makes active listening complicated, usually.<br />
Concerned voices fight values, morals, workaday ethics, expect sunny<br />
Possibilities; susurruses, shadows, implications, allegations<br />
Become farsighted emissaries, common folks’ heroes, leaders.<br />
<br />
Tales told to children generate hatred, extend fictions for generations.<br />
Fulminations suffice for political discussions, nursery rhymes, gentle<br />
Coercion of newbies; mangy self-appointed guardians remain staid,<br />
Against peace, perhaps, also, the preservation of life. <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>New Camels</strong></span><br />
<br />
New camels,<br />
Like Nahal recruits,<br />
Understand the costs <br />
Of skipping ruminations.<br />
<br />
During Negev campaigns,<br />
Ridding sage-filled vistas,<br />
While twilight blinks stars, <br />
Needs contemplation.<br />
<br />
Otherwise, reducing mortality<br />
To measured liters; <br />
Blood, water, gasoline. <br />
Turns degrees of wounded to sand.<br />
<br />
Dancing, singing, screaming,<br />
Our way to heaven’s better<br />
Than trudging through tomorrow,<br />
Muzzled once more by vacant cause.<br />
<br />
Amidst kassam rockets,<br />
Highway-bound stones, slingshots, <br />
Dedicated mulling can<br />
Force epochs forward.<br />
<br />
Each fresh chamsin <br />
Frees third lid responses;<br />
We riddle the Torah,<br />
Pray, perform mitzvot,<br />
<br />
Stretch bridges; humble brigade<br />
To ancestral triumphs.<br />
Unflinchingly pass through bullets; <br />
Such vision’s protected.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Grooving with Jewish Mama Pixie Dust </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">on Mo’ed; We Rejoice</span></strong><br />
<br />
Jewish mothers insure the ongoing grooving under the Sukkah called “Yerushalyim.”<br />
While mentally be-bopping to Lenny Solomon, Udi Davdi, and Eli Beer,<br />
Surrounded by yeshiva bucharim, old friends, the children of new friends,<br />
Chassidishe, Mizrachi, Haredi, Litvish, also very contemporary sorts; we praise.<br />
<br />
Our dear ones fill up with kugel, “chicken-in-a-pot,” brownies, beet salad,<br />
While sucking down the music of the spheres, of minyonim, of mo’ed concerts,<br />
Busied with wiping down tables, fixing the s’chach, counting folding chairs,<br />
Loading the dishwasher, making market lists for “second days;” we bless.<br />
<br />
Young people, known to sons and daughters, gather at kumzits, bar-be-ques. <br />
While talking of other parties, via internet, cell phones, IMing, and in person,<br />
Proving youth, that generation subsequent to ours, feeds on laughter, chocolate, pretzels, <br />
Rocks forward on leftovers, borrowed books, CDs, designated tunes; they exalt.<br />
<br />
Husbands plus wives trudge, up and down, up and down, up and down stairs.<br />
When ferrying teens, preteens, twenties to parks, to bus stations, to museums, to shops;<br />
Providing for clothing, bright for this festivals, which needs purchase, and many, many,<br />
Groceries to come home to feed kids from seminaries, ulpanot, day schools; they inhale.<br />
<br />
Our intermediate days balloon with local bands, Hallel prayers, crowded buses.<br />
When neighbors converge for ices, sing in rounds, play guitar, drums, recorder,<br />
Confirming, again, Jewish mama pixie dust as the undergirding stuff of celebrations,<br />
Unfurling light, sound, warm energy, good and greater vibes; we pray.<br />
<br />
Later, certain spouses hunker down, mouths a bit open, noses and glasses covered.<br />
When detritus derives from Mishpacha, Hamodia, Torah Tidbits, Binah,<br />
The best stuff’s been torn out by recipe seekers, drashah makers, fort builders<br />
Sorted for geniza, plus piled for murals, safekeeping, petitions to parents; we sing.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The Jerusalem Mall</strong></span><br />
<br />
Basketball elbows takes turns, in line,<br />
When queuing for security or merging <br />
Lanes, en route to malls.<br />
Habitat, here, means frisky protexia.<br />
<br />
Tonight, I let a woman, dressed in half my clothes,<br />
Cut in. Nearby, a tall man, perhaps a national defender, <br />
Smiled, while whispering <br />
A loud about connections.<br />
<br />
Returning teeth for teeth, I<br />
Wished “A Good New Year,” plus<br />
Remarked on the rain. Together, <br />
We celebrate the smallness of difference.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Birkat Hamazon Again and Again</strong></span><br />
<br />
Dust, like Avraham Avinu’s,<br />
Soaked from Angles,<br />
Sheet the byways between the secular and dati<br />
Whose joined steps, gather the manna <br />
Transformed into mangoes and plums.<br />
<br />
Charadi and Masorti both run before Shabbot.<br />
<br />
My neighbor pours water, by buckets, <br />
Down the community stairs.<br />
His Sfardi home glistens such that only<br />
The spiced chicken and the hot, seeded <br />
Cakes best his welcome of challot.<br />
<br />
Flickers plus light after sirens while local<br />
Arabs amplify, using guns or loudspeakers.<br />
<br />
Our minyon sings Carlebach.<br />
Warm soups linger olfactory clues.<br />
Black and white men return to lay hands<br />
On children eying parve chocolate.<br />
The first son is first blessed<br />
<br />
Ima shines alongside her vort’s pearl drops.<br />
Guests sing with Abba.<br />
Windowsills smile flowers.<br />
<br />
Outside, cats continue dumpster searches.<br />
We walk, Birkat Hamazon again and again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>As Long as We Put Nutmeg in Our Coffee: </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>An Ode to the Holy Land</strong></span><br />
<br />
As long as we can fill up our gas tanks,<br />
Put nutmeg in our coffee,<br />
Preview Hesder, Climb Masada, <br />
Dip Yam HaMelech, traipse sacred waters;<br />
We’ve secured life’s prize.<br />
<br />
Our Old World-sized washers might<br />
Make subsisting in this land <br />
A change from former incarnations, <br />
But black hats mixed with knit kippot <br />
Serve our self-concept best.<br />
<br />
Jerusalem’s variegated blue <br />
Firmament differs, genetically,<br />
From skies over Europe,<br />
Plus North American heavens;<br />
It sings the body better.<br />
<br />
Here, we laugh lavender because <br />
The Dead Sea, by dint of the Kinneret,<br />
Satisfies doctors, teachers, <br />
Rabbanim and cellists;<br />
Together we build purposeful habitation.<br />
<br />
Israel’s light, sweet babies’ round<br />
Augur belies “superficial” altercations. <br />
Decreased water tables or resident <br />
Aliens are laughable during daybreak;<br />
Our spiritual topography remains intact.<br />
<br />
Aroused, also at times ashamed,<br />
We locals attach hope, <br />
Dream of functioning toilets,<br />
Next to our piled laundry; Sometimes it’s<br />
Dirty chores that shore up a nation.<br />
<br />
They don’t seem much, our weathered<br />
Stones, yet everything grows<br />
From center. The Universal One Knew<br />
We’d dread, trust, need, love, accept<br />
Our onyma from Shemyim.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Mrs. Moshiach</span></strong><br />
<br />
With her help-opposite otherwise preoccupied,<br />
Riding on donkeys, listening to silver trumpets,<br />
Mrs. Moshiach emptied her collection box of dollars, euros, yen.<br />
<br />
There was marketing to be accomplished. The world’s <br />
Souk was offering opinions in various sizes, colors, tastes,<br />
To sagacious and foolish buyers, alike.<br />
<br />
Whereas some folk prefer to grind their gists on old-fashioned quems,<br />
Most takers happily chomp pabulum, that bland stuff lacking <br />
Sufficient nutrients; cognitive-heavy absorption takes too much time.<br />
<br />
Accordingly, the prophetess, who dressed in ticky-tacky,<br />
Her autogiro equipped with six forward gears,<br />
Flew in for a day at the mall. Yellow journalism was on sale.<br />
<br />
Home, she deigned to hijack seemingly sated media crews by dint of her<br />
Tahini, hummus, falafel, especially, her sandwiched analyses of cultural switchbacks.<br />
Know, extra sugar makes arak, rose-petal tea, also oishr, so much sweeter.<br />
<br />
Women’s work remains unacknowledged. Those reporters, <br />
Works-for-hire, scriveners, burped politely, yet filed prescripted stories.<br />
Her man’s campaign, in contrast, changed the course of history.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Gan Eden, I Think</strong></span><br />
<br />
Is not a state of bud, green branch,<br />
First fruit, fine bloom, or stem, sun-drenched,<br />
But Shore of Sighs, an Ocean’s High-<br />
Placed Hopes, in due course settled.<br />
<br />
Times such select, far-flung Beachfront swells, <br />
Sweet Calm salts, permuting sorrows.<br />
Nonworldly Sluices purge, exclaim in sotto, <br />
“Away! A gone! ”<br />
<br />
Adjacent, Crest of Light’s soft lull,<br />
Unbinds spent essences mournfully known,<br />
Divinely shifting “aches” to “glows;”<br />
Wet Radiance pervades!<br />
<br />
Caliber wasted; kindness spurned;<br />
Age deprived; youth unremittingly burned;<br />
Humble spirits squandered, else violently conserved,<br />
Find Cosmic’s Teardrops foster plus preserve.<br />
<br />
Small selves wronged, there reinstated.<br />
“Rough-censured” grow to “consecrated,”<br />
Holy chosen, live evermore absorbed<br />
With means to gift back the Munificent Sea. <br />
<br />
Foundations repaired by that Seaboard’s touch,<br />
Prove precious, essential, benevolently much-<br />
Returning toward Singular Forms of Luminosity;<br />
Sharing rewards when furthermore restored.<br />
<br />
Afar from common dreams of field or sky, <br />
A Neighboring Realm where angels bide,<br />
Gliding over smooth sands, singing comforting wisdom, <br />
One Awesome Coastline ensures Gan Eden.<br />
<br><br />
<br>The Camel Saloonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17466326145539153263noreply@blogger.com0