Authors /
Yehiel E. Poupko
Yehiel E. Poupko is rabbinic scholar at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
Five poems
The Lord God called out . . . “Where are you?” ...
last witness*
you were there
tell me please
if you don’t mind
if it is no intrusion
upon what graced
their last gaze
the floor
a chair
the ceiling...
Farewell to Christendom
we are a people
without bodies
our feet
no longer
walk your lands
our hands
turn no pages
in the ancient book
like our selves
now burned...
white table man
white table
stretched reaching
as far
as the eye
can see
grain fields
at the other end
or is it
the head
an hour glass
table man’s...
The mass shooting in Buffalo was an attack on the image of God
And it was enabled by social structures of permission.
As the shadows grow
After that first
let there be
shadows sprouted
like grass
gathering waters
to flood
darkness grows
let there be
its light
shadows rolling...
Memo to a Christian friend
you seem
you really
do seem
so interested
in suffering
thoughtful
and purposeful
pain sorrow
wounds
of hands
feet
and heart...
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poems
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meditations
hosts
of pieties...
The word become ash
For a while
We lived by the word
I am
You saw no image
I am
The word
Unseen and heard
Never to become flesh...
From Sinai
In the beginning
It was passed on
It all began when
It was passed on
Handed down
From lip to ear
Mind to heart
Not taught
Not instructed...