You Need To Be Alone Poem by gershon hepner

“You need to be alone, ” said Machiavelli,
to found republics. In a prison,
no spirit ever has like Christ arisen––
if indeed he did––without a telly,
with HBO at least, though if you’re able,
you should make sure you’ve lots of other channels,
like AMC and TNT on cable,
plus internet to write your prison annals.


Mark Kleiman in the Tanakh seminar at Hillel House on January 12,2010, explained why Gen.4: 17 states that Cain, banished from contact with all other men, founded a city that he names for his son Enoch, by citing Machiavelli: “It is necessary to be alone to found or reorder a republic.”



1/17/10