Jerusalem

 April 22 Word of the Day: Jerusalem

 

City of my childhood prayerbook

Acres retold, promise unseen

Temples pool sides stone golden gates

I have not a rhyme for those

 

Promises retold, aches unseen

Ancient columns of politics.

I have not a rhyme for those

Saints who deal with all the damage

 

Modern columns of politics,

There aren’t the words to express that.

Saints have acts for all the damage

Morning after to start again,

 

There aren’t the words to express this.

Here are some: light, home, food, warmth, rest

Mornings after. To start again

Is enough to hope for in this world.

 

Here are some lights, homes, food, warmth, rest

Ample on hill lovely afar

Quite enough to lose in this world.

Enough to sing when they’re quite gone.

 

Ample on hill lovely afar

All languages reiterate

Enough to sing when almost gone,

Adults understood at best in part.

 

Languages reiterate

The city of my childhood prayerbook,

Adults understand at best in part

Temples pool sides stone golden gates.

 

[August 2020 & April 2026]

 

Images: Iso-mandala No. 85 – Jerusalem (September 2020). In online poetry group during lockdown, as an exercise I invited members to write a poem about a city that they currently could not visit: “The poem can go anywhere. It can be descriptive. Memories may fill the poem. Longing to return is possibly at work. By imagining the city then and now and even in the future, you play with one of poetry’s strongest devices, which is tense. The reader is left with a strong sense of the city.” I chose the pantoum and wrote three poems for the group (Florence, Jerusalem, Tokyo) in August 2020, which are released here, with little alteration, in April 2026.