Images of Jewish Life: Introducing the Poetry of Baruch November
Baruch November’s poems are a kaleidoscope of Jewish life and history.
The Destruction of Our Temple If we sleep together, the Cuban Jew said, it means I love you. 3 days later, she said nothing more. If I say nothing to you, it is over, she did not say, so I called and called. At his wedding, Daniel asked, What is wrong with you? I said nothing—tried hard to look happy dancing in the ring of Chassidic men. I clapped when they broke the glass hastily hidden under the white cloth. Shards flew at everyone. But, in love, there is no one to yell watch out and no one would listen if someone did.
The Talmud’s Fool
The Talmud classifies a fool
as one who loses
everything you give him.
I lost her less
than a few days after
she claimed she loved me,
sitting bare-legged
on my wide windowsill—
her body backlit
by shafts of
morning light.
No explanation given.
No call returned.
Don’t we all turn
into fools, though,
sooner or later,
losing everything
since we take
nothing with us
to the hereafter?
Bitter Departures
The wine tasting at Tishbi winery
serves French chocolate
and only red wines.
The chocolate opens up
taste buds to the wines
and the wines open up
heavy secrets inside.
Outside a wide tree
of golden flowers shifts
branches in hot winds.
As if survival experts,
the blossoms seem to nod,
acknowledging escape
to the vineyard’s shade
would save no one.
***
Down the road, at the center
of Zichron Yakov, a town
Baron Herzog built up
east of the Mediterranean,
remain the homes
of the Aronsohns —
a family of master spies
in World War I.
***
Sara Aronsohn—captured, tortured—
managed to shoot her own throat,
preventing her from giving up the others.
That scarlet bloom of plasma killed
her four days later.
***
Avsholom, Sarah's brother-in-law, tried
to get a message across the Sinai
only to be caught, shot, buried, and found
years later entangled in roots of a tree.
It is said the tree arose
from a date in his pocket,
a new life from the dead—
sweet clusters shaking out
of a bitter departure.
***
Our short, talkative tour guide,
an American immigrant,
lost his wife two months ago.
He lives by the waters of the Galilee
and knows the ways of sorrow,
the directions of loss—
a perfect tour guide
for the land.
The Tethered Life Short and silver-haired, the survivor of the Kindertransport says, Vienna was beautiful— the people were not. Edith recalls the journey but doesn't speak of the parents dissolving eternally behind the train into the distance. She prefers wise sayings to poetry— reminds us, a stitch in time saves nine, rubbing arthritic hands carefully together. She was married long ago, no children. I’ve lived long enough, she says. Guess my age. April clouds obscure sunlight. Shadow seizes the studio apartment. Edith disdains lamplight. 99 she reveals but hopes to witness the coronation of the new king, even if he doesn’t seem royal. Edith once lived in England, still has one foot over the ocean—another in her last chapter. She was an architect concerned with transformation of hospitals to colleges, seminaries to prisons, homes to offices…. Says nothing about converting old darkness into light. A man dangles in canary-yellow harness off scaffolding across the way. A sable mustache drapes over his mouth, as he replaces warped gray shingles for deep brown ones— How much that tethered life must be worth high above the great variety of sorrow below.
Baruch November’s latest book of poems, The Broken Heart is the Master Key, will be released in 2025. His previous book of poems was entitled Bar Mitzvah Dreams, and his first collection of poems, entitled Dry Nectars of Plenty, co-won BigCityLit’s chapbook contest. Baruch’s works have been featured in Tiferet Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Lumina, NewMyths.com, and The Forward. November serves as a host and organizer of the Jewish Poetry Reading Series, and he has taught courses in Shakespeare, poetry, and writing at Touro University in Manhattan.
Tiny Delights!
5 Tiny Delights
1) Cold diet root beer.
2) Finding my lost keys.
3) The sports section.
4) Listening to Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan
5) Laughing with my brother.
5 Tiny Jewish Delights
1) Ending a fast.
2) My mother's sweet poppy seed hamantaschen.
3) Reading stories by or about the rebbes of Chabad and the Baal Shem Tov.
4) Long shabbos naps.
5) Reminding my brother of his love for all things Neil Diamond.
Love, love, love. ❤️
Loving the chocolate and red wine poem. Sending it to my daughter who turned 40 this year and lives in TLV. She took me to those wineries for my 60th BD.