In 2007 I was invited by the literary organization Voices Israel to tour the country, judge their annual contest, run workshops and conduct readings. Israeli poet Helen Bar-Lev was my host. She is an accomplished poet, painter,  poetry activist, and well-known in the Israeli literary scene. She was kind enough to submit a poem to the LYRICAL.

Here in the Desert

Here where stones grow legs and horns
and transform into mountain goats
and the odor of sulfur permeates the air

where black grackles haunt with sweet cheeps
and mountains rise high and ocher and greenless,
where dry gorges re-form their shapes
with each flash flood

where a salty sea buoys bodies and heals ills
where black mud cracks dry on happy skin
and papayas and mangoes are so abundant
they are ignored with indifference

here in this paradise, where glorious flowers bloom
from unsuspecting branches,
we come to rest from a city impossible,
to heal from its tensions

and we do, we do,
but return we must,
lest we take the desert, this oasis, for granted
come to see it all as ordinary and boring,
wish to escape to the city
to relieve the tedium

here in the desert, we understand
that humans are appreciative
of what lies on the other side
of themselves

© 3.2006 Helen Bar-Lev

__________________________________

To have your work considered for the LYRICAL send it to:
dougholder@post.harvard.edu