My mother would say
about late nights like this one,
"You should go to bed,''
Though she herself couldn't sleep,
she wanted better for me.

 t

Dangling in the wind

is the way a flower feels.

Uncertain moments,

yet the flower still has roots.

And yes the flower is strong.

Written on April 7, 2009.

What you did today?
Almost any answer bests
“I wrote a poem”
At least that is true for most
The others? Send them my way.

Perhaps tonight I will feel redeemed
Every Jew went out of Mitzrayim, including me
So there's hope to escape my metzarim
All holy beginnings start with a spark of faith
Children will find and return the redemption
Here and now salvation, a blink of G-d's eye

written 2011

Even in whispers
there are things we don't want said,
And yet, they are said
Specifically in whispers,
while G-d eavesdrops from above

March 8, 2017

 

Neil Fleischmann February 20, 2012

I am ravenous,
not for food but for life,
not for any life, for eternal life,
not any eternal life, but for children
who will have a better life than me.

11 Years Ago

"How are you?" can mean
two very different things
It can mean, "Hello"
Or it can be much deeper:
Tell me, tell me, tell me - please

There were two brothers
Together they shared a field
The field was named life
They struggled with jealousy
And other weeds of the field

136

Just got this email:
"There's no Pep Rally today"
- from my old workplace

And as I walk and wonder
I need my own pep rally

Summer’s morning air
reminds me of Day Camp days
waiting for the bus
sitting on the outdoor chairs
two together on the porch.

Pink Lady Apple,
so I called you in my head,
based on what you said:
that this Synergy flavor
is the best Kombucha drink.

Every now and then
Humans speak using our mouths
More often we don’t 
We speak in our silences
Using our body’s language

Years ago like now

I had my benches and trees
nearby my workplace
Where I would have by brief leaves
in the middle of the day.

Herd immunity

a term now floating through me
sheep wake me from sleep
Covid-19, 6 months in
lying in bed, wondering...

In Hebrew, chemlah:
mercy, pity, compassion,
what we're grateful for.
Not that G-d returns our soul,
bur the emotion He brings.

Like fish in water
we need to be in the air
so that we can live.
And yet we cut ourselves off;
hold our breath, and hide inside.

Sometimes I wonder
if I'm more than the voices
inside of my head
Torah, Rabbis, Tradition,
teachers, parents, therapists

But for G-d alone/
And sometimes I don’t get Him/
Then I’m so alone/
Those times I’m lost from myself/
That’s the worst galus of all

-  December 22, 2009

Joy seems so challenged
during these cramped Covid times
as we live online
praying as the sirens pass
for neighbors dying en masse