Shalom Freedman Poems

ON THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL OF HANAN PORAT Z’Ts”L

You died on a day of irony
The same day the European Union today recognized the ‘Palestinian Authority’ as a ‘Democracy’
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ENVY OF OTHER POETS GREATER AND MORE HONORED THAN ME

Envy of other poets greater and more honored than me
Only shows how petty and foolish and unwisely ambitious I am-
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I WRITE POEMS FOR POETS

I write poems for poets
Our situation as poets-
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I waited inside the world of wonder
The poems were coming to me night and day-
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The poem was written in mind and lost-
Like so many thousands of pages
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I READ AND REREAD/ THE POETS I LOVE

I read and reread
The poets I love-
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THERE IS A POEM OF OUTRAGE AND SORROW

There is a poem of outrage and sorrow I cannot write in a strong enough way-
It concerns the injustice of allowing murderers to go free-
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I lost the calm of my poem and the peace of my soul
When I heard murderers would go free
And those who had deliberately killed women and children
Would torment yet again their victims’ families-
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WHEN THE MURDERERS RETURN TO GAZA


When the murderers return to Gaza
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I WENT TO WHERE MY LONELINESS WAS

I went to where my Loneliness was and asked it why it no longer existed
Then I felt the presence of my wife and knew the answer by myself -
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