;.cReselected poems, 4/89--date
;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,5,75,192,2,10,15,20,25,127,5,0,
;.l7,2,78,192,2,10,15,20,25,127,2,0,





SELECTED POEMS, 4/89--5/92


                                         
                                         Steve Amdur
                                         Mevo Modi'in
                                         73122 Israel













.p
.h3, Selected Poems, 4/89--5/92   --

Flying to my home
mourning a lost love
consoled by the stars.

       Forget neither how your souls loved
       nor that her heart has left you.

                                 
                                       Dec. 4, 1984, El Al, (rev. 1989)

----------------------------------------------------------------

With what reticence she visited her grandchildren
the light, then, of her life.

                              (ASA)

=======================================================================
.p
The gold-winged blackbirds
stopped last fall in England
to call me home.

                        Ein Gedi
                        December 20, 1991

--------------------------------------------------

gale wind over the Dead Sea
spasms of rain driven out of darkness like sand
100 children banging doors
flickering static hurls news of politicized TV peace from Bethlehem --
Signs of a stormy birth for the new year.  

Morning light:  8 Zede Yaelim
                walk across the wadi
                toward the salt-choked sea. 


                                             
                                             Ein Gedi Youth Hostel
                                             24-25.12.91

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Leila:
Black streets, cold rain
driven by a howling wind.
   "Everyone pauses, dreaming of peace" says Shlomo
    they tell us, waiting outside.

Mincha time:  snow settling like doves on orange trees
              and the Old City walls.


                                             Jerusalem
                                             31.12.91--01.01.92

======================================================================
.p

*Resented for 50 years
your refusal to negotiate,
Time, but know now
relief at leaving
done deeds behind.

                   Harwich-Hamburg Ferry
                   Winter Solstice, 1990.

======================================================================
l7
Our Italian Catholic suburban neighbor's children once "did the job"
with a brand new remote-control-operated electric garage door
on our middle-aged spayed cat.
My mother asked, "Why would anyone want to kill a poor old shlump like that?"

 
                                                         January 21, 1991.
l1

------- 
l1
*Came back to the farm flipped out, but found
the crested wheat grass I'd drilled in last summer
had become a pasture.
                          
                           (of New Buffalo, apr. 1974)

----------------

Grant `honest Iago' that "inky cloak" of literate artifice.
                    (The baboon wore white  upon his sleeve
                     clutching the             hummingbird.) 
 
        So pity poseurs; respect affectation:
        if angels fail
        they fall and fizzle
        out like meteorites; we
              though, can't 
              quit, have to 
        shamble on posing as bagmen with bundles of guilt.

---------------

The Snake, Iago, played fair
the taste was exquisite
    as evanescence
thought the cold after-glow
lonely as omniscience.
 
                                          (1992, outside London)
-------
.A4
No blame, only loss,
of something unidentifed.
Nothing changed.  The `Angel with Flaming Sword'
could await discreetly  an improbable crisis.
Reaching toward each other they savor particulars
of a new, unwanted world.
                                          
                                          
                                        (1991, Hamburg)
-----                                                                  
Ed Clark said,
Comes the Revolution
Todd Gitlin will be under the bed
with the rest of us.

           SPU house, E 7th St. NYC, ca. 1965.

======================================================================

After so much rain
a warm winter's day --
hastily I sit in the sun
trying not to alarm it.

----------

Thrown out of his hovel,
the pottering old man arranges the kitchen
of his hosts.

                    Mevo Modi'in, 20.12.91

----------------------

Stumblebum in the sun
coughing and farting and drying his toes.
	"That's one happy nigger."
    
         Poor old Bucket o' Guts:
         Did you really expect
         a marble laurel wreath?
          

                16.12.91, Modi'in

-------------------------

Before I'd washed the clothes
worn to our visit
they'd taken you away.
     
                                  28.04.92

-------- 

ENVOI

Rinata's in
the looney bin

again.

                              Spring 1991 (Rev. 1992)
-----------

Today they are burying 
two persons whom I did not know were dead
nor had lived.

                          Israel, May 4, 1989
                
------------------------------------------------------

**Four Star Night**                   

Sasson the Mad Russian
's wife says
they're out
on the street
but
not quite down
in the gutter;
last night they slept
at the Kings' Hotel.

                           (Cf. Catullus)

--------------------------------                                  

Like a cat awaiting grace
from the refrigerator
I sit on the walk-way mall
before a Magic Money Machine
marked 'Closed'.

--------------------------------

The elderly proprieter
of Bet HaNeshek
displays Chinese vases
as if to say,
though my wares may shatter skulls,
these, at least, are precious.

 ------------------------- 
.p

Descending
from the Central Station
to Tiberias
one is welcomed by the goddess of the waters
astride a magazine cover.

                                 :Cornocopia

-----------

         Why have you come so far to see what you should be?"
                                Himalayan rishi, quoted by PVK


Seeking their Jesus of Finland
they shlep like sheep from hotel to moterboat
and pause, midway betwen Ein Gev and Tiberias
to sing of warm pine rooms on a soft snowy day,
thinking it of Him. 
Flying to tomorrow's news,
2 F-16's crash past.
Ashore, air soft and warm as a patchwork quilt
the pastor goes up to an old Arab
casting from fluttering eucalyptus to rippling water
and shows him a salmon lure
from mountain streams. 

--------------

Sitting by the swimming pool
I glance up at the West Bank
village on the opposite hillside.

                                    (Makabim, 21.04.92)

-------------

"Israel agrees with you."
"Because I agree with it
 overall."

---------------

In winter
Israel's ski-run
is usually closed
due to snow.

-------------------
.p
*News Item by Andy Court from the Jerusalem Post Pesach edition

In Katmandu in '88
ba'al tchuva at a Seder say
"This can't, man, do -- know
 where you're at, baby:
 call the Rebbe."
In '89, beneath the sign
of a bakery on the way of the Elephant-god
came a carton of kippot with
air-mailed matza (baked in great haste)
and a hundred tins of gefillte fish
with two 20-year-olds in coat-and-tails
flown all the way from Austalia.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------

Oh, shomer mitzvot mayonaise -- today's
fast I
unintentionally betake from thee.

                                     10 Tevet,  C.E. 1990

---------------------------------------------------------------------

and the drunk on Jaffa Road
spake unto the autobus exhaust, 
      saying:
      
           been sittin' here since '48
           nobody sees me
           might's well go back home

------------------------
    
    Haman had,
    at least,
    excellent 
    ears ...

---------------

& on the 8th Day Man said
it was good
for a start
but
Let there be brighter lights
electric birds
imaginary foods
and fire-waters.
You rest; we'll boogie --
Yalla, Chava.
 
                    Tiberias, Motzi Shabbat 31.05.92, 00:30  


-----------------------------------------

*The Emperor of Ice Cream Shall Return

"Hi --
 Last time we met
 you spoke of Jeshua.
 He's Messiah."
"What's Messiah?"
"Next time we meet
 the oldest buys ice-cream
 for everyone --
'Bye."

---------------

News Item,  Decembear 1991

The complete Buddhist scriptures
once written on palm leaves
will now be inscribed
with concentrated light
on a CD-ROM tree. 

======================================================================

TALES OF NEW BUFFALO

Cave Dave found Jesus
and called the cops
on himself.
He went back to jail in Chicago
and changed his mind again
so we all sat down
while Telus tried to pray him out
and I called for help
on a phony credit card.
In the morning Telus said
"Ain't easy."
Next day Cave Dave got sprung
hitched all the way back to Hondo
and let himself out of his last ride
through the windshield.*
        


       * That was a true story; Dave was badly scarred but everyone              looked weird in those days so it didn't matter much.
         Cave Dave says:  If you don't pray from the heart, 
                          ain't no way He can hear you.

-----------------------
.p
MORE TALES OF MODI'IN

Reggae Tune

Eliahu go no shoes
     Nu -- he
Jet-Set it to Italy
maybe 
       to bring us back currency.

--------------

"You ain't talked to me in 11 years
 and today all you said was,
 'Don't talk to Leon.'" 

                             
                              (Atty Wm. Richman, Esq.)
                             

-----

Can do
       everything
in half the time
including shmira.

------

"But," said Billy,
     "Shlomo told me,
      'Go fly a kite.'"
 "ASSUR!" said the POLICE CHIEF
          for fear
 you'd snaggle a cable
 completing a circuit
 *** COWS DEFEND US ***."

----- 

The Maggid of Modi'in said,
"In the name of the Wife of Meesh-meesh:
 'Assur to know
  on one foot;
  might lead
  to fox-trot & what not.'"

---------------------------

	'Oh Pious Ones'
      how continually you invoke, how rarely attend
      wishes of heavens.  

                                                     (Cf. Rumi)
.p

Today we went out to the shooting range
to learn to shoot 
3 shots apiece
so we can all carry guns 
but it was raining very hard
and so somebody asked the Rabbi
and he said we could all go home
so we all went home and the sun came out.
We will go back out to the shooting range
next year
if heavens permit it.

                                      27.12.91

------------------------------------------------

We have a new Rabash.
Every night he gets up
& puts on a real Uzi
and picks up a big new flashlight
and wakes up the Shomer
who gets to carry a nice old wood rifle
who wakes up the guard-of-the-night
who goes  over to Leon
who gives Leon 30 shekels to take his place
and goes  back to sleep
and then  the Rabash goes back to sleep
and then  the Shomer goes home
and then  Leon goes  back home to sleep.

	So every night
	Leon guards us all night long
	but nobody gives him a gun
	or a flashlight
	or a key to unlock the gate
	or a smile.


=======================================================================

Portrait of the Poet by the Lawyer for a 4-year-old

"He came from way up there
 and his mind moves so fast
 you can't even see the wheels spin."

-------

Everyone's exasperated past words
at someone.
Constellation of black holes.

-----


'Distance'd', all but 'cut off'
I am welcomed at the House of Prayer
by an open-hearted dog.

-----
Sunsets shut up in her soul
flash out as lightening
who longed to buld lovely worlds.

------

'See much, say little.'
Wiry as Jacob, striding stones
to shelter and raise a family on sun-scourged land.

------

Sight clear as daybreak
freely she came to our tents
where men fenced her in.

          Note:  'As clear and passionate as the dawn', said old Yeats.
                  Daybreak is clear, dawn passionate.

---------

"The only difference is,
 we're all crazy
 and know it
 and you're crazy
 and don't know it
 yet."

				 (after Bob Werz, New Buffalo, ca. '69)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     
For four year Roy
lived like a perfect English country gentleman may
in a little 2-room cottage
with his 3 big Doberman watchdogs
in his little 2-room cottage.
One day Hai asked,
"Is that normal?"

-----------------------                                               

Today Roy graded his lawn
Like a helicopter landing pad.
He stays here to guard us
from `weirdos'.

--------------
.p

My neighbor the commando
slips out in midnight dark
to untie a blue line
from my puppy.

--------------

Adon Katsefet

"14 years
 been shootin'
 Arabs,
 and now they won't give me a gun.
 Some folks are on a power trip."

---------	

Lady with a tied-down mind
keeps her man and dog on short lead;
someday maybe they all run 'way.

--------

Woodsmoke on the summer wind
Lest the Moshav burn
I'll print out these poems now.

                     May 4, 1992,  12:42 P.M.

======================================================================
.p

To play football like a gentleman
don't ignore the sidelines
nor tackle the spectators.

---------

Can make an apple pie
with any apples;
cut around the spoiled spots.

-----------

"It would be a mistake
 to take me for granted,"
she said.  I forget who.

----------------------
.p

*I ride the rails as beige arrays
of foliage float by, and toast
with tea displays of Jersey cows
that jet-stream past me, relatively.

----- 

fumbling and losing things -- pieces of 
teeth mind and memory
I am only surprised that age arrived
before I grew up.

--------------------

*The Arc de Triomphe
lonely as de Gualle
stands encircled
by a swirling moat
of endlessly encircling
autos.

-----

*How Paris celebrates
each house where every poet died
of its high prices.

----

& President Ford V-8
        spake
in a great blaring of horns
unto humanity, saying:
We Rule, worms;
go Underground.

				(Paris, 12/90)

-----

The sun scuttles across the grey sky
like a hedgehog crossing a snow-lined road.

                          (England, Dec. 11)

-----
             
.p
MORE METAPOEMS

but a mind is always a volatile thing
shy as a cat and apt
to run away when things get noisy...
____

Slipping into sleep
pick pieces of my puzzle
in a language I forget

-------

Pick & catch one cloud that blew through the mind.

====================================================================== 

Frying bacon, honing poems --
trim off the fat.

-----

While I guarded the tavern
the bandits bought me drink
and stole my poem.

----- 

It was reported in The Jerusalem Post
that a diplomat has said,
"One must see many cities
 to collect a single poem,"
 
      Zhlolp'd in the sun
      I remember my bookshelves.

                                       :"Treasure in heaven"

------------------------------------------------------------

The echo of silence
from an exclamation point
used by Pound.

                            [Ref: Pound, Imitations from the Chinese,                                    'The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter']
--------------

One tries to pick words that fit the thought.

---------------

Leaving, the bandits dropped my poems
back into my in-basket
from their smoke rings.

-----

Visit of a Minor Muse

"Sorry to get you up.
 Do you still need the bed?"

------------------------------

Ok; here's the key to what I'm writing nowadays:

Old men talk simply,
sipping water after meals:
say, Klee's farewell paintings
or even Yeats
savoring ironies;
retiring bodies
pottering on
as spirit soars.

--------

I came
entangling in the telling but intending 
to say
more than this

-------

.p

*POEMS TO CLAUDIA

sigh of thunderstorm
fluttering wings of a dove
red fox lopes through the grass

------

soft wind, summer clouds
rumble of a thunderstorm
red fox running home.

-----

watched by cows and mule
I sumble down from the pass
soft bells in the rain.


             (Passeo del Colombo, Val Blenio, 8/26/90)

--------------
*One day a poor student met a comely young woman of Moab, and followedher home.  Then he remembered his duties and spurned her.  Quite a bitlater, when he came to rainbow bridge to the pearl-light gates ofheaven, he found, as expected, a great sage robed in a long tallitwaiting to greet him.  'Did you really not recognize me?' asked theMoabitess.
                                       
-----
There was, and always will be, a Princess, from the lands of cloudcolored light, who chose to see the lands below, and descended like ared-and-orange flame, until she came to a land where she learned toride the winds like a fast-fleeing storm-cloud.  Then she chose todescend further< to a land where she learned the ways of Wisdom, andthere with her mind she wrestled joyously with others who climbed inthose heights.  And then, with a deep breath, she descended to thelowest but richest place, where he feet found rest on rock and earth,and looked about for others who had made that journey.  But the sky wasgrey with rain, and cold winds blew, and often the air was full ofharsh noises, and travelers often became confused and forgot what theyhad come to do.  And so of course one day a poor student, who dressedin cast-off clothing and looked about with a frightened air, walkedacross her path and said, 'We met once in another land, where the airis not so filled with noises -- I can take you back to visit there, Ithink'  But he looked and acted so strangely that she did not believehim.

------
Refs: (1) Cf. Kitov, Book of our Heritage, on Book of Ruth
      (2) After the schematism of HIK, passim.; Cf. eg PVK's summary ofthe teachings of HIK in The Message in Our Time
(Harper & Row (?) New York, 197__).1
.p
CHAGRIN D'AMOUR

Lovers in the Morning

"before recalling who
 you ask me how
 I am"

---------

"Belied yourself
 only; I
 was, as you'd put it,
 'true'."     "And you
set to rout     merely
our   ration  of time."

----------

*"The best-laid plens of mice and men"
derive, as in Of Mice and Men.
I've no-one now to show this to.

---------------

*I gave my love three wishes.
She bade me wash the dishes.

----------
      "Hine ecquitavit"

*Friday night again,
wonder where my woman gone


--------

                               "...but our love's all written down
                                like a song too often sung..."
                                                        Shrager ca. '65


of an angel soul in a monkey mind
and a body like strawberry cheesecake
mane of a red wild horse
in chains to a brewery cart,
Oh ------
           horseshit: Claudia
           why must you be so mean, baby
           do what you do do did it
           like your mamma said bad baby ....
     
.p
-------

*"I love you true
 but you must part
 for dropping bread-crumbs on the car-
 pet; yet we'll meet again some day,
 if that's what my housemates say."

------

"garlic"
                      "Darling..."
"Not darling, garlic."

-----

George Bernard Shaw, a bachelor
romanticized such liasons 
as 'maximized chance of accepted advances'...

  ------

"My housemate's cast-off roommate sat
 therein and watched TV all day
 and in and out you do it to
 my CPUnit VDT.

------------------------
.p
BAGATELLES

Cats nap
where whim of the wave of the day betake them ...
even in Egypt, posing as deities
still, they
eschewed formality;
`the cat's pyjamas', then, were merely
hyperbole.   

----------------------------------

"Lovers in the boudoir
 must not clash
 with my potted plants."

-----

"Steve  I just lost another
 Steve; one            must  
 really be more care-
 -ful with her
 possessions."

------

*That spayed cat, Madam,
ate your decaffinated tea.

------

"I'll love you          dear
'till Mountains turn to tears
   and fall." She said,
"That's all?
 "Know Sir that then
  the Valleys    run
  in soft-banked streams
  and greenly swells the rolling hill with burgeoning
  that fallen mountains yet yield gold to succor 
  buckaroo, so hold your 'orse and pay our Tariff
  'ere I call my paw the SherifF."

======================================================================
.p
NOTES FROM HAMBURG

Amusing a modern woman
by my covered head
I pass the Dammtor Plaza
and glance down at a bronze plaque.

-----

In deepest sympathy
2 Hamburg policemen
& 6 citizens
contemplate a wounded swan.

-----
In the first-class Hamburger subway coach
a gentleman sits
beside an attache case
stuffed with chocolate.

-----

                               "this people mild politely smiled"
                                     Gilbert & Sullivan, Iolanthe(?)

The Great Synagogue of Hamburg remains
only as a black-&-white photo,
the bimah glimpsed
behind a smirking factory worker.
   
    Today, we may fast or go to the Opera;
    for the villains have passed
    in a Cheshire cat's ass.

                                     Novermber 8, 1990*
                                     Hamburg--Holland train

                               *November 9, 1938, was "Kristallnacht"; 

--------------------------------

Peacefully, aimlessly as snowflakes
Germans on holiday drift over the frozen Ulster 
as if nothing had changed
from those days, centuries ago, of the Dutch masters.
Now here's a man in ten thousand,
souring their joy the best he can
who says the world will come to end.
as well it may, though not, I think, today.

                       2/17/91

------	
.p

COLLECTED CHICKEN-KICKING POEMS

                           3-if Poem


If    
     thoughts   cld                                  kill
if   that       cat               had
                                       9      lives
     & each                                   live
                cat               had  9      lives
     he'd                                            still
     be                                              dead.


======================================================================


       



