Our teachers were wrong
there's more to poems than rhyme
or syllable numbers
and there's more to life than school
but not more than poetry.

109

I take reply all,
misused, as a metaphor,
for extroversion,
and more Meyers Briggs letters
that pose challenges for me.

Please hear my shofar
And allow me to hear yours
And may G-d hear ours
The shofar goes above words
Beyond articulation

I think that life is
breathing and being alive
at least for starters
and we need to be careful
what we tell others to do.

It's Not Memory:
Life events crawl inside me,
bones, heart absorbs them.
Replayed on a living loop
till there's no way to shake them.

"Let not the blessing
of a simple person be
lightweight in your eyes."
So let me simply bless you
and simple or not, bless me.

If you're not sure if
you want to buy oranges
you might not buy one
and even if you buy one
you may never know for sure.

I'm telling my thoughts
that they need to quiet down
but it's not working
Maybe my quieting down
will help calm my thoughts down too

It's not just foxholes,
as I've never been in one;
it's places of fear,
like the one I'm in right now.
There are no atheists here.

Have to/don't have to,
how I feel about writing,
as the clock runs down.

And maybe it's obvious 

that my writing means living

100

So much is inside,
like I'm inside my home now,
my thoughts inside me.
But it can be dark inside,
while the light awaits, outside.

If you don't get that 
you don't get it then I can't
get you to get it
I just wish that you would stop
telling me I don't get it

Sitting, post minyan
Processing past Yom Tov days
And looking ahead.
Family and friends in mind
And responsibility.

We all need to feel
there's someone beside us when
we free fall to sleep
sometimes there's a person there
and always G-d is with us

For Facebook

I'm tempted to vent,
and then I remember that
everyone has stuff
single teacher's at year's end
and married accountants too

I'm not a phone fan, 
don't like what it does to us
or to the children,
or how we critique the kids
though we're also addicted.

You never visit me

not as a ghost, not in a dream

maybe that's because already

you live underneath my skin

And every now and then from behind 

my eyelids, you give a push and I cry

Late, past my bed time,
like mornings when I run late,
I leave my Egypt,
as I pray: "G-d bless my dreams,"
and, "Thanks for another day."

Slavery/freedom:
An old couple arguing,
and deeply in love.
Freedom says, "Give me some space."
Slavery says, "You're lazy."

91

Without my own kids
my cousins' children don't get
how I'm related.
Surely not their grandchildren
- just some cousin once removed.

The man on the coin
was Abraham Lincoln, but
mom didn't say that
she said, "Someone important,"
so I thought it must be G-d.

Why G-d made logic
when so often there is none
is part of the shock
of the picture of good health
first turning... now going on

The Holy Ghost is
the name that she had for me.
I never heard why.
But then I didn't ask much,
just hovered religiously.