Shalom Freedman Poems

W need the voices of others
We need them so much
Alone today in my own dreams
I felt lonely and abandoned
...

All these poems about myself
As if I were the center of the world
As if I am so limited in mind and attention
That billions of other things
...

I give too much time to grief
I know it's wrong
But I miss so many people
I have known
...

Perhaps there is a hidden blessing
In never having really been known as a writer
No curses no hatred no envy
No distortion of views falsification of what one believes
...

IF I CAN HAVE A POEM THIS MORNING


If I can have a poem this morning
...

Walking was once such a pleasure
Now I walk with pain
I clench my teeth
And force myself forward
...

I do not know why or how
But somehow now sometimes
In my old age
I feel a kind of freedom
...

If my writing
Were to be recognized
After my death
Which I doubt
...

I am tired more often now
I sleep more often
And wake many times in the night
I grow more lazy and indifferent
...

Why write another poem
No one will read?
Why write another poem,
If you do not believe in yourself?
...