by Yehuda Amichai The body is the cause of love;after that, the fortress that protects it;after that, love’s prison.But when the body dies, love is set freein wild abundance,like a slot machine that breaks downand with a furious ringing pours out all at onceall the coins ofall the generations of luck.
Found out this morning that Bobby Fischer passed away today in Iceland, at the age of 64. While I was never deep into chess, I played a fair amount as a dabbler… and even went so far as to replay a few of his games. I was always a fan of the legend, more than…
I am in no hurry. The only thing in front of me
is home, a few stars, and another night.
I have tried to love what I thought was the world,
but the world moved. I will love the move instead.
by Yehuda Amichai I saw clay jars covered with barnaclesthat were saved from the ocean bottom,and thought about the sailors of ancient timeswho gave half their lives to sail to those jars,and the other half to bring them back here.They did what they had to do, and drowned near the shore. A woman beside me…
by Craig Arnold I’m cooking Thai—you bring the beer.The same order, although it’s been a year —friendships based on food are rarely stable. We should have left ours at the table where it began, and went to seed,that appetite we shared, based less in need than boredom—always at the cheapest restaurants, Thai, Szechwan, taking our chance with…
by Felix Jung How all-American, this eating just for thrill, a feast with no occasion. Any sort of open space we see becomes a place that must be filled. On vision quests, the seeker goes for days without, receiving dreams instead. In darkened movie halls, the screen is always blank at first, and at the…
by Yehuda Amichai For every man in a rage there are alwaystwo or three back-patters who will calm him,for every weeper, many more tear-wipers,for every happy man, plenty of sad oneswho want to warm themselves at his happiness. And every night at least one mancan’t find his way homeor his home has moved to another…
by Felix Jung When the winds kick, my stomach falls as if to clutch the ground. I lookaround for trees to grab, a signpostI can cling to. Mary Poppins used the air to float about, but what became of all those nannies? When the gustsgrow strong, I think of them: flailing arms, loose black dresses…
by Philip Larkin Love, we must part now: do not let it beCalamitous and bitter. In the pastThere has been too much moonlight and self-pity:Let us have done with it: for now at lastNever has sun more boldly paced the sky,Never were hearts more eager to be free,To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and…
by Yehuda Amichai When I have a stomachache, I feel likethe whole round globe.When I have a headache, laughterbursts out in the wrong place in my body.And when I cry, they’re putting my father in the groundin a grave that’s too big for him, and he won’tgrow to fit it.And if I’m a hedgehog, I’m…
by Yehuda Amichai The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimetersand the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,with four dead and eleven wounded.And around these, in a larger circleof pain and time, two hospitals are scatteredand one graveyard. But the young womanwho was buried in the city she came from,at a distance of…
by Yehuda Amichai On a roof in the Old City laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight: the white sheet of a woman who is my enemy, the towel of a man who is my enemy, to wipe off the sweat of his brow. In the sky of the Old City a kite. At the…
by Yehuda Amichai My mother comes from the days where they madepaintings of beautiful fruit in silver bowlsand didn’t ask for more.People moved through their liveslike ships, with the wind or against it, faithfulto their course.I ask myself which is better,dying old or dying young.As if I’d asked which is lighter,a pound of feathers or…
by Yehuda Amichai Forgetting someone is likeforgetting to turn off the light in the back yardso it stays lit all the next day. But then it’s the lightthat makes you remember.
by Yehuda Amichai After you left meI had a bloodhound sniff atmy chest and my belly. Let it fill its nostrilsand set out to find you. I hope it will find you and ripyour lover’s balls to shreds and bite off his cock —or at leastbring me one of your stockings between its teeth.