The Commentator's Poetry Section Spring 2018

Editor's Note: The following poems are courtesy of the Yeshiva University Poetry Club. The Commentator thanks the club and their leaders, Chana Morgenstern and Yakov Stone, for their contributions to the paper throughout the spring semester.

 

"Wind, Unwind"

By Irwin Leventer

 

I choose, precisely:

Evaluate,

Experience world

That I design.

Not thou, Sisyphus,

Hater of fate,

Wallowing deep in

Stars of mine.

Renew, reform,

Yes, contemplate!

Starting anew is

Quite divine!

Tread though with care,

Don’t complicate

The world’s harmonic

Wind, unwind.

 

"Edel - White"

By Gabriella Englander

 

Sunlight filters in through dusty blinds,

Dances on a China-blue vase, brimming with edelweiss,

Overshadowing my Bill of Rights homework, abandoned

On the dark-veined table.

 

My grandmother shuffles in, her gaze

Traces cotton-coated petals. Her eyes,

Envelop me, same gray-blue as mine,

And I fold in -

 

To a Carpathian valley of sweet gale and rolling pine,

Whistling to the barred warbler’s tale, gray-blue eyes

Of a man, plucking clusters of edelweiss

For his wife to fluff in a China-blue vase -  

 

Beside my homework, on the dark-veined table,

My grandmother rests a yahrzeit candle

For those who had no Bill of Rights,

Her lips pressed white, edel-white.

 

"The Sky Says Snow"

By Elazar Krausz

 

The sky says snow,

White turning to gray as what remains of the sun tucks itself away,

Stripped by the clouds of its grand adieu.

The naked trees shiver with hesitation,

Unsure if they're ready for the burden.

And then the flakes come,

Weaving themselves into an oscillating tapestry outside my window.

My radiator rattles angrily,

Anticipating its job will be harder tomorrow.

The radiator is tired. The trees are tired. The sun is tired.

But the sky says snow.

 

"Innocence"

By Batsheva Lasky

 

The first tooth I lost

fell to the kitchen floor.

I lay my cheek on the cold tile

Peering under mahogany cabinets

and cushioned chairs until I found it,

nestled between a long lost cheerio and the table leg.

I picked it up as a jeweler would a diamond,

held it up for all to see.

When night fell,

and the tooth fairy was set to come,

I hid the tooth not under my heart shaped pillow

guarded by my army of fuzzy friends,

but in my secret hiding place

where not even a fairy could find it.

No one could take it away from me.

Even for a quarter.

 

"Progress"

By Shai Yastrab

 

Any bad creation

Deserves examination for good

Hypotheses,

Inevitably, joining kept leftovers

Makes new, odd, premises.

Queer results start to unfold

Voila!

What xenogenic,