gershon hepner Poems

Experiences that don’t transform
were designated “culinary” by Brecht;
to find what is beyond the norm
start tikkun in the kitchen, borscht with Besht.
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Using titles given by a monarch
when played or playing in the Philharmonic
shows great respect to those who have been knighted,
and without titles would feel slightly slighted.
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When your life is full of sorrow,
find a space
where you displace
the past, so you can find tomorrow.
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Six men sat down for him and played
his great Verklärte Nacht;
they’d shown that they could make the grade
and Beethovened and Bached,
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INTIMATELY CHALLENGED

He’s intimately challenged when
a woman says: “I love you, ”
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“The timing of my life was great, ”
Julius Shulman has declared.
There’s synchrony between the date
of his life, and LA which shared
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Of the wilderness, I sing
the conflict between priest and king.
Balak declared: “Let’s put on death row
Moses.” “Bad idea! ” said Jethro;
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Yessir, she’s no angel, never was;
never saw that she had wings, because
she flew without their help into my mind,
and now has fallen, oh so far behind,
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FOREVER, LONG AGO

Each wishing for the sword that severs all,
their love a Gordian knot that they must sever,
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How many doors are there which someone’s touch
may open, helping those who are enclosed
within themselves to say alive? So much
depends on those behind the doors we’ve closed
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