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                                      January 25, 2013/Erev Tu Bishvat 5773

 

Dear friends and fellow-poets,

                                                        With feelings mingled

of pleasure and regret, we write to tell you

that our poetic conversation, focused

this time on "Boundaries," is now emerging,

leaving behind the bounds of print and paper

(due to the limits of our means and time)

to settle on the infinite Internet!

As is our custom, we’ve composed the issue

with the intent that all our various voices

may resonate with and reinforce each other,

and hope you will find meaning and delight

not only in each poem, but in its setting..

We have retained our format – just not printed

but rather posted as a .pdf.,

though, as we’ve promised, printed copies will

be sent to libraries and to subscribers.

As poets, it’s our business to find meaning

in all that happens; so too in this move

out to a worldwide circle of reception;

still we regret no longer being able

to furnish many copies to be read

offline, and most especially on the Sabbath –

the proper time for poetry, we think,

when soul-sounds carry well through clearer air.

But for this lack there is a remedy,

if you’ll print out the file! If you can print it

two-sided, and then bind it on the left,

you’ll have a reasonable facsimile

of the magazine we would have liked to send you.

And then, if you will let your contacts know

that this rich treasury of speech is out there,

we’ll have the best of both worlds – Sabbath reading

and an expanding circle of awareness.

One more advantage of this format is

that it’s correctible! So please advise

of errors and omissions, and we’ll fix them.

On the last page, we’d like to call attention

to the poem titled "Amendment 28,"

one poet’s answer to the Newtown massacre

which deepened by some shades this winter’s darkness.

So far, there have been twenty-seven amendments

to the U.S. Constitution; twenty-eight

corresponds to the number of the dead,

counting the perpetrator, who it seems

had fallen prey to violent entertainment.

This next week, hopefully, will see the launch

of new site – stopdeadlyspeech.org.

It was to be amendment28.org

but that domain name turned out to be taken

by a group that seeks amendment to prevent

those "legal persons," the large corporations,

from flooding out the democratic process

with tidal waves of lucre. It appears

to us, that these two causes are related.

In both, the dignity of human beings

made in their Maker’s image is at stake.

To a political dialogue thus focused,

poetry – for what is its "form" if not

the proprioception of the human person? –

might yet be central, we would like to hope.

Stay tuned. In any event, next issue’s theme –

G-d willing, it will be less long delayed –

will be "THE CENTER." We look forward to hearing

your meditations on this truly central

theme, and pray that with the year’s renewal

our thought may likewise freshen and gain strength.

Esther Cameron, Editor-in-Chief

On the day before Election Day

Someone said,

"Tomorrow is a special day"

Correction:

Everyday is a special day.

The bounds of foresight?

As I write these lines,

Tomorrow, on the day of rest,

the sap will begin to rise in the trees,

yet I see no almond blossoms.

The bounds of my eye sight?

When I sit on my balcony

and close my eyes to the vineyards

I listen to the beat of my heart,

My face to the wind.

Fear not, it's blowing in your direction

Just as the Torah goes forth from Zion!

Mindy Aber Barad, Co-editor for Israel