Requiem (& Other Poems)

In the incantatory “I’m Sad,” the great Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai wails: “I’m sad, / sad, sad /about the dead, /I’m sad /about the dead /about the dead, /about the wounded, /sad /about the homes / sad, /sad, sad /also about the fork /thrown onto the floor, /about the bulbs, /burnt-out and broken /or left behind, /still alive / dangling from the ceiling …” Long one of the most outspoken Israeli critics of his government’s treatment of the Palestinians, Aharon Shabtai is widely viewed as “one of the most exciting writers working in Hebrew today” (Ha’aretz).  Though some may feel that this is not the time for Israeli voices, others believe change must come from within as well as from pressures from outside Israel.  In these times of carnage and slaughter, Shabtai in “Tikkun” calls for peace:

The horror

the calamity

the disgrace,

the rubble of folly

and religion’s stupidities,

the dimness of vision

and violence of despair

won’t be repaired by an officer,

a bomb or a plane,

and not by still more blood.

Only wisdom of the heart could mend it…

only the gardeners of peace.