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Amen is Still Amen
Hebrew ...I do love
however... staring into the challenge
on my iPad brings a frown.
This poet speaks to humor
with Yiddish puns flying over my head
Rudimentary Hebrew is useless here
Ranting to my husband
About the loss; many hundreds of words
too precious to properly tolerate
the culture shock of my native tongue
I return my thoughts to his poem
lingering on a familiar word
that will never need translation
Amen
From: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52940/the-amen-stone
#YehudaAmichai
however... staring into the challenge
on my iPad brings a frown.
This poet speaks to humor
with Yiddish puns flying over my head
Rudimentary Hebrew is useless here
Ranting to my husband
About the loss; many hundreds of words
too precious to properly tolerate
the culture shock of my native tongue
I return my thoughts to his poem
lingering on a familiar word
that will never need translation
Amen
From: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52940/the-amen-stone
#YehudaAmichai
Published 2nd Mar 2020
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likes 4
reading list entries 1
comments 14
reads 582
Commenting Preference:
The author encourages honest critique.
2nd Mar 2020 9:59pm
2nd Mar 2020 10:02pm
Anonymous
2nd Mar 2020 10:15pm
The chosen inspiration poem by Yehuda tells the story of families having been obliterated during the Holocaust through the symbolism of the destruction of graveyard stones resulting in fragmentation, and how surviving family members do their best to achieve closure by coming together in various ways. Firstly, It's a poem about making connections. The narrator is at peace with a fragment on his desk engraved with the word "Amen" which means "so be it". Secondly, It's also a poem about acceptance, having come to terms with any situation being what it is for the time being.
Jess, you did a great job of illustrating the disconnect experienced when encountering unfamiliar words while trying to make sense of a poem. The poem is then like one of those aforementioned graveyard stones, in pieces that you understand and don't understand, but you make the best of it through acceptance by being satisfied with what you do understand.
Well done and good luck in the judging!
Jess, you did a great job of illustrating the disconnect experienced when encountering unfamiliar words while trying to make sense of a poem. The poem is then like one of those aforementioned graveyard stones, in pieces that you understand and don't understand, but you make the best of it through acceptance by being satisfied with what you do understand.
Well done and good luck in the judging!
I totally see the poem that way, too! 🙏
Great, vivid description of his work. We've often thought of moving to my husband's father's place of birth. Technically we just have to claim citizenship. So his work has a lot of gravity to me. If not for certain German survivors escaping to Canada successfully, my husband would not eventually have been born.(therefore also not our ten kids...)
Great, vivid description of his work. We've often thought of moving to my husband's father's place of birth. Technically we just have to claim citizenship. So his work has a lot of gravity to me. If not for certain German survivors escaping to Canada successfully, my husband would not eventually have been born.(therefore also not our ten kids...)
3rd Mar 2020 3:55am
Omg, Jess!
(in response to your reply to JohnnyBlaze)
I’ll come back later to leave you a proper comment, MB🙏🏻
(in response to your reply to JohnnyBlaze)
I’ll come back later to leave you a proper comment, MB🙏🏻
3rd Mar 2020 6:24am
Agree with Johnny Blaze's comment. I would say 'so let it be' about your poem, it needs no amendment or re=presentation, it reads well enough as it is.
To read your husband was son of Holocaust refugees - wow, Respect.
To read your husband was son of Holocaust refugees - wow, Respect.
3rd Mar 2020 3:08pm
Technically the grandson.
Son of an only child, too.
Grandpa Solomon had a sister, but the Nazi's sterilized her in a wacky experiment she survived. Solomon had Oz, Oz had no siblings or cousins, so he went on, and had my man, his only genetic son. But we have 10! Talk about staging a comeback for a dying breed!
🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🙏🙏🙏
Son of an only child, too.
Grandpa Solomon had a sister, but the Nazi's sterilized her in a wacky experiment she survived. Solomon had Oz, Oz had no siblings or cousins, so he went on, and had my man, his only genetic son. But we have 10! Talk about staging a comeback for a dying breed!
🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🙏🙏🙏
3rd Mar 2020 9:01pm
That's ten in the eye for the Holocaust's architects and their criminal acolytes.
3rd Mar 2020 3:54pm
BRAVO, Jess! Excellent offering! He is one of my favorite poets, and I do believe you did him justice. Sometimes all we can do is make what sense we can out of the fragments left behind. This, too, is what you have done.
Well done and best of luck in the comp.
Well done and best of luck in the comp.
3rd Mar 2020 4:28pm
3rd Mar 2020 4:30pm
I'm trying to catch up! Thank goodness for slow mornings and finishing work early!
Congratulations! This poem has been nominated for Poem of the Month!
https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/competitions/read/11293/#469877
https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/competitions/read/11293/#469877
4th Mar 2020 1:08am
4th Mar 2020 5:25am
