Jp Burke, Rodney Mazinter, Ernest Safari
From a Rwandan Survivor to the Jewish Community
Oh yes, Understandable, it happened yesterday!
You have reasons to love and like yourself,
because you were hated for no reason
If nobody was hated without reason, he/she won’t
know how to love him/herself
If you were not treated unjustly, you won’t know
to treat yourself justly
We have to remember and DEFY our past while
at the same time moving forward
We have to DEFY our horrible past and work for
tomorrow’ success
Your loved ones wanted to see a new moon of
success
But not all were able to
Those who do or don’t want our success are not
that important
What is important is the time we have now to
become ourselves
There will always be a light for our future!
Don’t forget – with support and unity, tomorrow
is in our hands
“IF GOD IS IN OUR SIDE, WHO WILL BE
AGAINST US”?
Ernest Safari
The Promised Land
Craggy and lined, his face revealing the stormy
tumult of life —
Sun scorched, rain ravaged, emotion bludgeoned —
The Sabra’s gaze embraces the horizon.
Only eyes betray the futility of unrequited
adulation,
The land is not his — he is the land’s.
Twenty, thirty, forty million years,
Before puny man first drove fingers through her
thick, rich loam,
She nurtured leafy growth of boundless variety.
What need had she of human devices? What need
of science?
She is nature’s child who must return to her mother
Should abuse drive her tenant from the common
home?
Man cannot destroy the land unless he first
destroys himself.
The farmer’s eyes speak of love;
Scorned, yet he indulges his scornful mistress.
His face, lined, speaks eloquently of hardship
endured,
Each furrow tells a tale etched by time:
A fiery fever that takes a wife — a child,
Here a drought; there a flood — a dry, dust-bowl;
a sea of mud.
Each event its footprint leaves — to craggy head
each story cleaves.
Just the eyes o’er brimmed with love for soil
beneath and God above.
Rodney Mazinter
Seaside Cottage
Not a mansion, just a house
Not a house, more like a home
Not a home, a place to be
To rest, to eat, beside the sea
A place to walk
And talk and play
A place to dream
A place to stay …
No rush, no fuss, no frantic pace
Somewhere just to be yourself
A haven in a busy world
A moment free from time itself.
Charlotte Cohen
Bagpipes Anyone?
Shot in the dark but worth a try
How many bagpipers are here
Or have you heard a pipes shrill cry
Secretly wishing it elsewhere
How about lending me a pair
A pipers pleasures pipes to find
New or old I’ll supply the air
As that buzz shall settle my mind
See I have an idea to play
Yours or his pipes to a fun tune
And please spare me on Purim day
Knowing I may appear the loon
Oh I hope I’ll some pipes locate
Vhere Oh Vhere before it’s too late!
Jp Burke
