Song: Private Dance (Rikud Prati)

I finally had the opportunity to upload to YouTube a clip with the song I wrote earlier this year as a wedding gift for my wife’s sister and her husband.

The song was beautifully composed by Liron Grossman a singer/songwriter.

And was performed at the wedding party as a surprise by Liron and the very talented  Yoli Kesten-Harel.

Poem: The Horizon

This one i wrote on July 2nd, 2009.

The standard disclaimers apply, the poem was originally written in Hebrew therefore the translation may lose or change some of the meanings, rhyming, wordplay, etc.

~ The Horizon ~

I found myself sitting before the horizon
Looking at that distant line
The border between a memory and a touch
A divider between my past and the dream.

I found myself for one moment content
for an instant gazing at it aloof
It – that cuts the imagination to broken shards of glass
The ever threatening wave that is reluctant to come.

As I sat there, I found a tree nearby
Old it was, barren limbs, leafs no longer growing
like me its gaze is full of wonder
but the tree is staying here and I’m already disappearing.

I found myself thinking about that disconcerting horizon
Does more life exist beyond its colors?
Is it covering an internal light, or rather,
Is it holding back the darkness from blanketing my world?

Does the horizon also have searching eyes?
Does it see my already fading footsteps?
For a moment it pleased me to sit here
but I’m rising to go, I’m already disappearing.

The original Hebrew version:

~ האופק ~

מצאתי עצמי יושב מול האופק
מביט אל אותו קו מרוחק
הגבול בין זכרון ובין נגיעה
חוצץ שעובר בין עברי והחלום.

מצאתי עצמי לרגע מרוצה
לרגע באדישות לעברו בוהה
הוא שחותך דמיון לזכוכית שבורה
הגל המאיים אך שלא מגיע.

בעודי יושב שם מצאתי לידי עץ
עץ זקן, ענפיו ריקים ועליו לא צומחים
כמוני הוא מסתכל לעבר האופק ומשתהה
אך הוא נשאר כאן ואני כבר נעלם.

מצאתי עצמי חושב על אותו אופק מתעתע
האם מעבר לצבעיו יישנם עוד חיים?
האם הוא מסתיר אור נצחי, או שמא,
מחזיק מבעד החושך לכסות עולמי?

האם גם לאופק עיניים מחפשות?
האם רואה את עקבותיי שכבר מטשטשות?
לרגע קט הישיבה נעמה לי
אך אני קם והולך, אני כבר נעלם.

Favorite Poems of the Day Up to Date: 21/08/2009

As some of you know I’ve taken upon myself to try and publish a link to a poem i like per day on Twitter: #PoemOfTheDay.

Admittedly, I havent been able to keep it up everyday since I started but I did manage  to share quite a few over the past few months.

I’d like to take the opportunity to collect some of my personal recent favorites in this post.

Enjoy!

August 19th 2009 – “Metallic Wing” by Efrat Mishori: http://tinyurl.com/mdlv57 – “Metallic wing in its socket, beating unseen.”

August 18th 2009 – “Pleasure for Pleasure” by Peter Stavropoulos: http://bit.ly/3Y7S4O – “…Pleasure for pleasure will surely start”

August 13th 2009 – “Night Heron” by Samuel Peralta: http://bit.ly/rtZ1m – “rising from the waters / like a dream.”

August 11th 2009 – “Sonnet 56” by William Shakespeare: http://bit.ly/hPEcw – “Sweet love, renew thy force! Be it not said…”

August 10th 2009 – “from: Prayers of Atonement” by Lea Goldberg http://bit.ly/klx4t -”If there were torments–then they voyaged toward you”

August 3rd 2009 – “Endless Poem” by Yehuda Amichai: http://bit.ly/jGQ7o – “Within me / My heart / Within my heart / A museum”

July 30th 2009 – “Listening” by Amy Lowell: http://bit.ly/1K8pK – “‘T is you that are the music, not your song…”

July 27th 2009 – “The Garden” by Mark Strand: http://bit.ly/rSKuf – “it shines: even now in the moment before it disappears.”

July 26th 2009 – “Song of Hope” by Thomas Hardy: http://bit.ly/n4rlU – “To-morrow shines soon -Shines soon!”

July 21st 2009 – “On Pain” by Khalil Gibran: http://bit.ly/vmHgr – “…your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy…”

July 17th 2009 - “Petals” by Amy Lowell: http://twurl.nl/s5v6ai – “…Petal by petal the flower of our heart…”

July 16th 2009 – “When the Eyes Open” by Dahlia Ravikovitz: http://bit.ly/Z8Re0 -”as the soul returns to the body when the eyes open.”

July 15th 2009 – “Touched by an Angel” by Maya Angelou: http://bit.ly/uAerx – “Yet it is only love which sets us free.”

July 12th 2009 – “A Pearl, a Girl” by Robert Browning: http://bit.ly/6rDpB -”…Through the love in a girl!”

July 10th 2009 – “Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy: http://bit.ly/YMoIj -”I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper…”

July 4th 2009 – “Moonwalk” by Samuel Peralta : http://bit.ly/4sbHqx -”…The words begin to form a song / The melody begins to burn…”

July 3rd 2009 – “Wild Nights” by Emily Dickinson: http://bit.ly/qOMhk -”…Wild nights should be Our luxury!…”

July 1st 2009 – “If You Forget Me” by Pablo Neruda: http://bit.ly/1j9EgT -”if each day,each hour,you feel that you are destined for..”

Poem: In Love’s Defense

This one i wrote today: 18/07/2009.

Enjoy.

~ In Love’s Defense ~

In love’s defense,
she was here first
Long before we came along
She was never ours to hold
She never belonged to us
but to the world
Belonged to the butterflies’ wings
and to the tree tops’ wind
Our claim on her was never just
All our praises never enough
In Love’s defense,
She never presumed to be more
than what she is
Never asked for anything in return
Not once ridiculed our ethereal groping
Her light continues to elude
our ever present darkness
She dances between music notes
Swims in life’s deep currents
She is free
for us to enjoy
She is here
for us to share
Never own
In love’s defense -
She is LOVE.