After the still small voice
a noise
And after the noise,
a still small voice.
And after it, a noise.
And after it, a still small voice
And after the still small voice,
a noise.
Discard the rest.

- Yehuda Amichai

The Peace of Wild Things

- Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

WITH MY GRANDFATHER

by Zelda

Like our father Abraham

who counted stars at night,

who called out to his Creator

from the furnace,

who bound his son

on the altar –

so was my grandfather.

The same perfect faith

in the midst of the flames,

the same dewy gaze

and soft-curling beard.

Outside, it snowed;

outside, they roared:

“There is no justice,

no judge.”

And in the shambles of his room,

cherubs sang

of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

~

YEARS FROM NOW

by Shel Silverstein

"Too far away to see your face
As you flip through these poems a while,
Somewhere from some far off place,
I hear you laughing–and I smile."

The Five Spot, 1964

By Billy Collins

There’s always a lesson to be learned,
whether in a hotel bar
or over tea in a teahouse,
no matter which way it goes,
for you or against,
what you want to hear or what you don’t.

Seeing Roland Kirk, for example,
with two then three saxophones
in his mouth at once
and a kazoo, no less,
hanging from his neck at the ready.

Even in my youth I saw
this not as a lesson in keeping busy
with one thing or another,
but as a joyous impossible lesson
in how to do it all at once,

pleasing and displeasing yourself
with harmony here and discord there.
But what else did I know
as the waitress lit the candle
on my round table in the dark?
What did I know about anything?

עכשיו קרוב - עידן רייכל

יושבים בחוף אל מול המים
מול קצף שנשכח בחול
והנחלים זורמים עדיין
לב שפועם זוכר הכול

מה שהיה בילדותנו
מה שהפכנו להיות
תקוות גדולות נשאה הרוח
חזרה שלכת זיכרונות

וכל דבר אז בי נוגע
כל נפלאות היום
אז בואי ועמדי לרגע
עכשיו קרוב, עכשיו קרוב

כוכב נופל קרוב אלינו
ושוב אליו נושאים תפילות
אור של תקוות עוטף אותנו
זה לתמיד ולא יחלוף

I stand here by the Western Wall,
Baby, look at that wall, standing silent and tall.
And I shove my prayers in the cracks.
Got nothing to lose, no-one to answer back.
All these years I've brought up for review,
Wasn't taught this but I learned something new.
Had to answer a distant call,
At the Western Wall.

And I've got a heart full of fear,
And I offer it up on this altar of tears.
Red dust settles deep in my skin.
Don't know where it starts or where I begin.
It's a crumblin' pile of broken stones;
It ain't much but it might be home.
If I ever loved a place at all,
It's the Western Wall.

I don't know if God was ever a man,
But if She was, I think I understand.
Why he found a place to break his fall,
Near the Western Wall.

- Roseanne Cash