III. Panorama ORCHID PARK Kibbutz Bahan, Israel Nature’s a magic slate— sleight of hand now you see it, now you don’t— desert frying the air and sand clouding light to the opacity of Roman glass—there cradled in the crook of this rock-strewn land a place they’ve named Utopia— curtains of monkey-faced orchids, skirts of succulent and rosebush, thrum of frog-song on a lotus-laced pond. Be still, some part of me at least— circle away from the puzzle of what it means to be me— to catch a leaf’s purpose seeping up behind my eyes— honeybee brain, mouse mind— now I see it now I don’t. —Ilene Millman RAINFOREST HYMNS Looking over deep-green tree tops the clouds look silvery smooth like the gray and white of fish flesh. A green kingfisher holds a small tilapia in its beak slaps it against a tree making it flexible enough to swallow whole. Butterflies with their colorful wings are hard to see against red, orange, yellow flowers, their undersides pale as the sky They’re like teenagers who want to both fit in and stand out. Bananas and mangos hang from trees as they did in Eden— all sing to the One Who created such a world. —Adam Fisher
Elhanan ben Avraham, ”Ayeka,” drawing for the 14m x 3.5m mural painted in 1989 at the YMHA, Jerusalem
THE CREATION
1. Bursting forth from unbounded heights of Dominion
and law above all form and precept,
the dam of fire erupts and blazing bands of light
explode symphonic scores expanding out on scrolls of verse,
the glowing words unroll and stretch
across the lonely barren fields of nothingness
and time is born pervading all the fiery force,
awakening every future gap,
and words pronounce the core of wailing energy
to spinning matter in whirling weightless tons agleam
to plunge through pitch of lifeless empty night,
and atoms search each the other out
to form the searing stars in foundries of flame
amalgamating matter for the potter’s wheel,
stars seeking sisters to dance the spiral minuets
and join their flame to light the black expanse,
the galaxies in whirling waltz and twist of dance ecstatic
cast forth from wombs their children to the skies.
2. The planets whirl about their star like atoms in their course,
majestic and magnetic in their order under law,
the perfect precept charging every pulsing quark
and ordinances ruling every atom in a spreading cosmic scheme,
rhyme and rule conducting every turn
of glowing Earth alight by a distant furnace sun at bay,
its scorching fire sterilizing those too near
and freezing those too far away,
founded in the providence of perfect place and time,
the waters form and cool the spinning sphere of Earth
to mellow fertile fields of fairest green,
a membrane of rainbow mist embracing every ray of light
as divine desire’s moving spark enthralls the stage,
and living hosts come forth from seas of salt and tide,
as life from Life and meadow grass and swamp
and flowering fragrant fruitful tree
await to feed the muscled pageantry,
the fish and fowl and furry creature of the forest
and camel in the parching wilderness oasis,
a parade of beasts in furry coat and the feathered bird
fixed to fly and cruise the bluing sky,
a farfetched feast of fancy risen from the mud,
its circulating blood astir with fire
to pass the magic seed of life enrolled on scrolls
with languages of wisdom,
curled and cured in messages of memory,
the song of pleasure hallowing the night,
passing the baton to children’s children’s
rolling dream genetic.
3. As cause and wonder green the land in harmony,
the crashing falls of water lend their course of life
from mountain to the plain,
sweet molecule formations administering hope
to all that would take breath,
all astir with water and its gifts,
await the crowning flight of fancy
formed from mud beneath the sun,
in patience squandered not in vain
and efforts culminating all that rose before,
charted ribbons of plan for leagues of cable
laced and linked and conceived in complexity
of finished form and purpose,
a mirror of the cosmos tuned to stand upright
and think and reign as servant—king
and tender of the garden,
unparalleled among the bounding beasts
and birthed to exceed their every deed,
to fly beyond the wildest dream of birds,
and dam the river in envy of the beaver,
shaping cities finer than the hive
and electric skills of sonar sounding the bat,
all this sung on chorus grander than the birdsong,
the Man and Woman shaped in perfect complement
of pleasured purpose
completing each the other’s lack and need,
stirring in reflection of divinity
and clad in naked innocence,
only Heaven reigns supreme above them.
4. All thought and language quickly manifests
to each as partner to Dominion,
raised and freed above the soil,
crowned of honor to the heights of regency
and draped in garments of delight,
yet they gaze beyond the ordered squads
of flying fowl passing overhead
and yearn forbidden fairways for their own,
they clamber from their perch
above the spreading garden
where no fierce beast is there to fear
within their province and domain
of formulated harmony in rhythms of divinity,
and in their grasp the power of the seed
to raise the Earth to Heaven,
to bring forth men of image as their own,
nothing lay between them here,
no thing denied but one a single admonition,
and there they break the one forbidden law
to burst the fragile silver thread of trust,
both mired now in clay with haunted dreams,
veiled in perplexity.
—Elhanan ben-Avraham
Goats at Adyar at Adyar even the goats slender as reed flutes attain enlightenment to the garden of meditation they go an ancient gathering of trees a cloud flock patches of sunlight sieved through branches; deliberate as measured monsoon rain the quiet goats’ souls enter; watching them the mind empties and stills as a large open—winged bird breaks flight lifting its warm white throat up into light. —Wendy Dickstein First Rays Of The Sun Splintered shadows give shape to rock formations sprawling, twisted cactus is revealed. A lizard is inspired to run, doesn't stop to measure malice. Snake holes everywhere, the true architects of sudden death. Flowers I can't name are abundant. Morning shivers gone, I squint from the sun's glare, my morning greeting. Desert's cracked and listless. The rain is welcome but absent. Presently, heat prevails. The terror of perfection rules. —Joseph Brush Oh praying mantis do not prey for me when I was but a child I’d see you in your green devotion on the farm crawling up a stick in blue ascent I’d watch your monkish posture transfixed upon the lithe divinity of summer days within the sacred branches of a living elm you thinned the edges of the dropping shade like water cooling on the shadow darkened lawn but with a closer look I’d glimpse the exoskeleton with hunger in its form betraying the ravenous purpose of your serrated jaw that sawed away the softly amber honey box the sessile ambush or your kind designed to make a ravenous crunch that stilled the hapless drone come friar bug what’s insect hagiography among the katydids the angel with his burning appetite for flaming swords brings fire to these aging bones and though today the evolutionary beauty of the dead leaf butterfly trace open heaven to the infinite glory of a single hand I trust my soul is both the dying oak of autumn and the glowing surface of an opening wing —John B. Lee
Sojourner in a Mountainous Landscape
These thousands of tall, skinny spruces—
tracing the mountains like wicked staircases—
each enrobed in midnight green speckled
with pale aqua when the full moon
comes to rest atop her effulgent throne.
The living waters—those many streams—
are like veins under human flesh—
their silvered scintillation like
a half-hidden heartbeat.
I wish I could pour myself into this land,
or soar as metallic light above it,
or become the high-hung, whorled branches—
my needles forming a thousand spiral staircases. —Bryan Nichols Praise ”Praise the Lord for He is good His steadfast love is eternal. ” Psalms 118:1 your eight-week old smile un-furrows winter brows baby hands clapping at the sight of the sea sound of the waves new to you and now new to us again. —Felice Miryam Kahn Zisken Something Bitter Something bitter, some unexpected thought, Some collapsing glacier wall, some discovery Of excited gamma waves, some slip On El Capitan, recovery At the end of a rope, don’t be afraid, Cling to the wall itself, cling To molecules, cling to night Or wind or to an echoing, The Brooks River roars in Katmai Park, The sunlight soaks closed eyelids, The passage through wind-softened rocks Contains the murmur of katydids. —Yaacov David Shulman Not Everyone Has Laws Not everyone has laws. They come From life, the crisp autumn comes With the wind, it comes down from The mountains, it shakes the geraniums. The feral cats don’t notice the fading Stars, the blur of orange-pink, And the quiet in the hollow of The day that speaks, their eyes blink, They do not see the fantasy, The shocking wealth, the sap in the tree, They think it has always been here, the supple Wind, the cars and their ennui. —Yaacov David Shulman
HE-WITH-THE-SUN-IN-HIS-MOUTH*
The ravens have gone.
The sky they once flew has been emptied.
When I walk out the door, clearances—
a pure change. No more the deep calls
from on high like a bell sharply struck.
No more the fanfare and bluster. The day
is listless, the sun untroubled by wings.
The ravens have gone.
No more the graceful loops and glides,
the beauty they make of the sky and wind—
my mind become beautiful by the sight
of them. Kloo-kok, kloo-kok, I sing, hoping
to lure them back…How all things flash,
how all things flare! Kloo-kok.
—Constance Rowell Mastores
*One of the names used by the Native Americans of the Northwest for a raven. The raven often flies so high that it appears to blot out the sun; or to hold it in its ”mouth”.
Panorama: a found poem* Just three words The pale clouds Created in China Just three words Far from home Local people know Believe in miracles Certain cult status Beautiful underwater world Current art zone Layer of silt River between hills Medium haul fleet Each measured brick Experiences bond together Quirky moving platforms Most market vendors Follow this advice Long bike ride Drink for free My childhood adults Stars, designers, stylists Actively support this Only in Madagascar Continuing the story Availability of beer Time and possibility Funny things happen Follow our advice Confusing scientific principles Advantage for transit Small brick houses Some healthy walking Modern high tides Residents fenced up Creaking floors, ceilings Most impressive tickets Tribute to traditions American jazz legends Current special offers An average person Of another sort Catch a breath Full smile design You can appreciate —Mindy Aber Barad * with special thanks to Ukraine International Airlines magazine from
LADDERS 4. I listen for a music Not played in concert halls Nor sung by human voices. Its instruments are lives That resonate through time And modulate each day. I hear a cosmic rhythm Guiding the stars in heaven And the pulsing of my blood. 9. Unless the bike is moving You cannot sit on it; Momentum holds you straight. Unless your mind is rolling You must fall behind The world’s revolving wheels. A vital spring keeps flowing Down the mountainside; You’ll run with it or die. 15. To anticipate the green Whose light impels us forward When we are stuck in lines; To celebrate green leaves Bringing welcome comfort After a freezing season, Something green within us Wakes the dormant soul: It's time to move again. 19. All material things Vibrate with soft voices That murmur in our dreams. Listen, trees are singing, And rivers recite a prayer That only you can hear. Ocean waves are chanting Odes to their Creator, And cloudy skies grow clear. —David Weiser (More poems in this series to be posted on our homepage) universe lying side by side my six-year-old daughter and I where the wavelets of the sea ebb and flow in the wonderful light of that early morning hour before anyone else arrives the many billions of stars born billions of years before burn without life unseen and billions of planets swirl around them also unseen it matters not my daughter’s footprints and mine in the wet sand are sufficient to make our place in the universe —Larry Lefkowitz |
