Eli Eliahu
Translated from the Hebrew by Marcela Sulak 
Security Zone

You'll become a poor poet
the tank commander told me and fired a shell.
Time froze
moons stopped moving
night hemorrhaged
snow.
The shell made its way
glittering
the night
into a shrapnel of stars.

You'll become a poor poet, said the commander
you're tailor-made for it, you're skinny
quiet, dreamy.

You'll write in a narrow room, without a light, alone
you'll write, I see you
sitting, hunched over the computer, on a colder night than this, between you
and the street, crossing the security
zone there's a narrow road
the rhyming zone, where the shell's potential trajectory
is the poem.


Divorce

And these were the days of lies and nights of deception, and all
that I feared came true and all that came—
I feared. And I was living like someone
else—his life. and I was like a stump
of a tree or a river diverted from its path.
And the storm didn't strike,
and the sea didn't overflow. Sometimes
a man destroys his own house
with his own hands.
READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM
Share
Tweet
Forward
Image of the front cover of "tsunami vs. the fukushima 50”
Ghost or Not: On Lee Ann Roripaugh’s “tsunami vs. the fukushima 50”
 
"To give voice to the voiceless is one of the goals of witness poetry, and in this regard Roripaugh joins a long line of poets who speak for and of those who have been silenced. But in giving voice to the perpetrator, in this case nature itself, Roripaugh enters terrain that is somewhat less well trodden."

via LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES

"I was in college in a small school in Central Pennsylvania and must have ended up in the large lecture hall to hear Maya Angelou by accident, if not for an assignment....The experience sent me off into the stacks to read for myself some of the poems I had heard Angelou read. Rereading I realized I could begin to rehear the music I had heard in person; following the lines, as I read out-loud, I felt my own voice approximate the same sounds. This was thrilling and utterly new.”
READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
Poetry Daily logo
Poetry Daily Depends
on You 

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today. 
You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com. 
If you would like to unsubscribe please click here.

© 2019 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030

Design by the Binding Agency