gershon hepner Poems

It’s harder to worship the unseen
than images believers have constructed;
imagination only is a queen,
and views of kings are never unobstructed.
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Forsaken, after many foreskins bought her,
indignant, naturally—she was the monarch’s daughter—
she criticized the way her husband danced
when coming to Jerusalem, entranced,
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The Japanese and Germans love the rules
Italians and most Frenchman live without;
while Jews think rules are meant for fools,
and rules are what they mostly like to flout.
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Her pen she would caress and fondle
while most particular
that after straight lines, horizontal,
came perpendicular.
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Best roads are incentives to leave, but best streets
are hidden imperatives telling you, 'Stay! '
Best beds are for sleeping, but often best sheets
have hidden imperatives telling you, 'Play! '
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My heart is a world filled with welter and waste,
dilemma with which I am constantly faced
when I have a choice and I do not quite know who
to take as my sweetheart. It’s tohu wa’bohu
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“Words can mean so many different things, ” said Alice
to Humpty-Dumpty, surely puzzled with distress.
The way they are interpreted creates a palace
where every one of them becomes the master’s mistress.
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In the darkness there exist
the objects only light
can indicate that you have missed
when they were out of sight,
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Some people think that I’m on drugs,
when really all I’m on is words
on which I sometimes slip, worn rugs.
Impossible as hunting herds
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When I was only twenty-eight
I said to old age: “You must wait! ”
It didn’t, because time and tide
don’t wait for anyone. I sighed
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