My daughter, son-in-law, and two young children, who had made Aliyah a year earlier, left Israel days after October 7. They returned to Israel about six weeks later to resume their lives. Over this past year, I’ve struggled to live with the daily news from Israel, the intense resurfacing of antisemitism here and world-wide, and the realities of having close family in Tel Aviv. I’ve lived through the turmoil of this time by writing. The following poem, from the new manuscript “My Partisan Grief”, was written shortly after my daughter and her family returned to Israel.
A Belief in Order
My daughter returned
to bring music to a stunned
country. Her orchestra strained.
In every note—remembering
halls once over-filled, once
Beethoven’s victorious Fifth.
I had wanted to tell her to stay,
be safe. I’m sure she heard all
I didn’t say. I’ve heard grenades
but she’s in their midst, a rally
of tympani, the clear voices
of a congregation of horns, flutes
that lure the frightened hoopoes
back to the banyons, the doves
to the eucalyptus, the strings’
every timbre seeking the Autumn
garden’s blue muscari, the field’s
scented white saffron-crocus—
their necessary music that heals
even as it anticipates the wounds.
“A Belief in Order” is forthcoming from Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Jewish literature and authors. This poem is part of our Witnessing series, which shares pieces from Israeli authors and authors in Israel, as well as the experiences of Jewish writers around the globe in the aftermath of October 7th. Read more
