Perfect Body Poem by gershon hepner

Whatever is inside the jar may change,
if it’s wine it’s likely to turn sour;
if you want a sample you must pour
or use a siphon or a small syringe,
depleting what may not be very good,
whereas the jar’s just what it would appear
to be and, undiminished, can inspire
no less than that which is within - and should!


The Rabbis say: Do not look at the jar, but at what is inside. Yehuda Amichai differs, in his poem called “People’s Bodies”:

People’s bodies are different from each other
but their souls are similar and full of splendid advantages,
like airports.
So do not give me your soul, but give me your body
which I can never finally know.
Do not give me what the jar holds, give me the jar.

Stand with me, therefore, at airports
where they dress the pain of parting in lovely words,
like orphans,
where food and drink are expensive
and people and their fates are cheaper.

A man is speaking into a telephone
and from the receiver he drinks agony and love.

Those who weep, too, have hands
as white as brides,
and what will arms without embraces
do in the world?

Let my soul die with my body.


10/12/00