gershon hepner Poems

In 1790 Mozart nearly got a great commission
to write an opera on Shakespeare’s “Tempest”.
Instead of this, when death became a major premonition,
he wrote his Requiem, and fugit tempused.
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A standing female nude has been corrected
by Rembrandt. She has shapely buns
the artist quite closely had inspected
while watching in the cloisters naughty nuns.
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They used to airbrush pubic hair
from photographs in 1930,
believing it was rude to stare
at it, regarding it as dirty.
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Rembrandt, Raphael, Van Gogh
are most collectors' boon
but do not cause my heart to glow
like water on the moon.
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Conveying pride and sensual allure,
Violetta's shame lurks just below the surface,
but, violated by a prude, she makes us nervous
because we come to realize she's pure,
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Cortés identified with Quetzalcóatl,
We think we know the story, but don’t know it all.
In writing stories of the people whom we vanquish,
how can we understand king Montezuma’s anguish?
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Lurking in the ampersand
lies the symbol of combining
one and one, which hand in hand
makes two by means of intertwinin.
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We laugh at gilded butterflies,
and know we shouldn’t gild a lily,
but who can ever turn their eyes
away from either? Willy-nilly,
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First wars resemble
a girl of great beauty,
we trifle, don’t tremble,
expecting great booty.
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Dotted everywhere they’d look,
men saw ironic points of light,
and spoke the words: “Let there be night! ”
which you won’t find inside the book
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