gershon hepner Poems

Cornell, most succinct,
has recorded a hoard
of birds now extinct.
What we can’t afford
...

Whatever happened to Lady Chatterly’s lover?
asked Martin Levin. Was the potent keeper game
enough to wait for her in hope and hover
around until divorce relit the phallic flame
...

She tells me that her eyes are hazel,
but the color green, like basil,
is her favorite, it seems.
Eyes provoke a lover’s dreams
...

Soar: although the sky is cool,
and all the earth, soar to Orion;
be strong, though not like ox or mule,
but independent as a lion.
...

Separated by a wall and then by death,
Pyramus, in love with Thisbe, is the paradigm,
in Ovid first, and then in Shakepeare’s shibboleth
that’s mispronounced by Bottom in crude prose and rhyme,
...

SOLVING MYSTERIES

Deep mysteries may be solved by analytic clarities,
but then dissolve as you dismantle their disparities,
...

She said, “Oh nein, oh nein, oh nein! ”
and since she was a German girl.
he wouldn’t do what seemed not fine
to her, a charming chap, no churl.
...

I caught this morning morning’s minyan
in the beth hamidrash where
ten men give God His dominion
which He is prepared to share
...

They only fruit when they are sure
that they are bound to die,
and only threat of death will lure
most mushrooms to your pie.
...

Peace on your return, delightful bird,
by my window from a warmer clime;
your voice is just as welcome as a word
of winter warmth recalling summertime.
...