gershon hepner Poems

Tendentious paperbacks can harm as much
as esoteric books with covers that are hard,
and break the spine of those who clasp and clutch
ideas that that clash with common sense and should be barred
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Weekdays, Pico Boulevarding,
for a Jew can be exciting;
that’s why, borkh’Hashem, I’m barding,
explaining why it’s so exciting.
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Advances in research depend
on unexpected brilliant breaks
the gods fortuitously send
not triumphs born of our mistakes.
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“Like a windstorm, punishing the oaks,
love shakes my heart.” So Sappho wrote.
Like ridicule in priest and rabbi jokes
which I do not propose to quote,
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To Manutius I say “Bravo! ”
He invented the octavo,
eight pages from a single sheet,
enabling you to be discreet
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Migrating monarchs in Michoacán,
like wandering wildebeests in Serengeti,
more lovely, precious and amazing than
the treasures in museums like the Getty,
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The intellectual who does not ignore us
purports to play the role of a Greek chorus,
although, unlike the chorus, there’s no mask
that covers all the questions he may ask,
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“Movies tend to be far more harmonious, ”
said François Truffaut, “than one's life.”
Whether that's correct or quite erroneous
depends a lot upon one's wife.
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Marriage, often a mistake,
can be a lovely one.
In marriage you can have your cake
and it eat––oh what fun! ––
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Sliding down the banister of life
one hopes the splinters will not face
the wrong way, and, when slipping up, one’s wife
will cover up each splintering disgrace.
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