gershon hepner Poems

Seeking in the stars what was denied
to him on earth caused Einstein to pursue
his happiness in ways that are decried
by those who take the Bible’s point of view.
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In a cave soft-lipped with fur
fingered prestidigateur,
feeling somewhat generous,
having scaled Mons Veneris.
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Grain, potatoes and molasses
of sugar beet are fine for making
vodka to amuse the masses,
when they’re shaken or they’re stirred,
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Books alleged to have been written
by God, known as Jehovah and Allah,
throughout the US, France, and Britain,
Japan, and Russia, China even, are
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Mark what ills the scholar’s life assail,
toil, envy want, the garret and the jail,
and others Dr. Johnson has omitted,
like friends who think he ought to be committed
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Paradise for some is Eden, or
a place that’s vanished and can never regained;
for others it’s a distant time before
the present pressure doomed to be disdained.
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Can poets write the missing words
for songs composers wrote with none?
Can humans hear in songs of birds
not psittsacine an avian pun?
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Sometimes we copy and sometimes we riff,
creating from one text a second, a fun text
engaging the first by inquiring, “What if
we could move it and see it when changed by its context? ”
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One called his painting “Honey’s sweeter
than Blood, ” a title maybe neater
than “Prodigal Sons Don’t Return, ”
but from such titles you can’t learn
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Sudden blackness overwhelms
when we are dying or when we
have lived as surrogates in realms
where television makes us free,
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