gershon hepner Poems

Not a hero to revere,
like Washington or Paul Revere,
he made the French join in our spat
with George III, a diplomat.
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Youth has no age, Picasso said.
In the long run we’re all dead.
We can’t deny this troubling truth
by claiming everlasting youth
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Some say being Jewish is a weeping
of the heart,
while others say that it depends on keeping
apart
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THERE’S A MYSTERY IN AN EMPTY ROAD, LIKE SILENCE

There’s a mystery in an empty road
which vanishes when somebody appears,
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I look up at him and the vision stirs
the place that moistly lies between my furs.
My smirking boss says: “I have not forgotten, ”
and I respond, becoming very sodden.
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Only one man sat behind
Ms. Rosa Parks, and he looked glum,
an image in the viewer’s mind
of heartbeats on a bigot’s drum
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For a reverence she thought was right
she practiced her devotion,
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Do not believe that those who’ve died
lie down. They rise when we engage
their words which have become our guide,
reborn each day upon each page
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I love to take another writer's phrase
and bring it to a verse where I embed it,
transforming it in ways that should amaze
my readers. In a sense, I merely edit
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Before we turn into a stiff
life has four stages––here’s the riff.
The first stage is when we are young,
a story that is gladly sung,
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