Alef

[PrinceMyshkin]

Alef

My people were reborn
in the letter Alef
which gave birth to bet,
gimmel, daled...

Alef was A-dam,
made of adamah
which is earth.
Bet was ben-Adam
"son of Adam," son of man,
that is, human..

My people are of earth
and were reborn
after Auschwitz, Buchenwald,
Chelmno, Dachau, &c.,
&c.,&c.,&c.,
&c.,
the whole alphabet
of calculated human bestiality.

Reborn, not so much when they were returned
to Eretz Israel, the "land of Israel," the earth
of Israel, but when they unearthed the Hebrew tongue
from its 2,000 year sleep,
and found their beloved Alef
once again!

[librarius_qui]

I like the Hebrew alef-beth ...
I learnt the old letters. (Not the new ones ...) I like their resemblance with the Greek ones, however my business is Latin.

Interesting poem. It shows everything of what you are. Very different from what I do myself. I more often hide myself. It's a corageous thing to show yourself.


:crash:

[windblown]

I wish Alef could stand for a new beginning after the destruction and bestiality of that terrible alphabet that you spell out in your poem and that you could continue with Ebensee and Flossenbürg ... Doesn't Alef mean Oneness? That you see rebirth in the unearthing of a language, of communication is one of many things I like in your poem.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I wish Alef could stand for a new beginning after the destruction and bestiality of that terrible alphabet that you spell out in your poem and that you could continue with Ebensee and Flossenbürg ... Doesn't Alef mean Oneness? That you see rebirth in the unearthing of a language, of communication is one of many things I like in your poem.

Thank you so much. Of course you understood exactly what I meant by citing Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Chelmno and Dachau, but I wouldn't have wanted to go on with the alphabetical next two that you mention lest I overstress the point.

I visited Dachau with my beloved older son once but though Rafael went in, I found that I could not - not as a free man, anyway, so I walked around the perimeter.

[Pendragon]

Love this poem, my friend. Bittersweet and full of passion! :thumbs_up