;.cNotes on poems
;.l1,6,63,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
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SA -- NOTES TO POEMS

IN SEARCH OF THE OX WITH THE GILDED HORN

This is a fortunate title, mixing the images of the festival ofthe Bikurim, according to tradition Shavuot, when farmers from allover Israel came with their communities in festive procession toJerusalem to offer the first fruits of the harvest, in aprocession led by an ox with gilded horns (Cf. Kitov, The Book ofour Heritage); with the classic Zen picture "In search of the WildOx", a parable of spiritual growth.

Pages are unnumbered; first figure is page, 2nd is poem on thepage.

p1
Grey Gables, a largely Jewish and bohemian Co-op house in OberlinCollege, distinguished by excellent folk-song evenings(Hootenany's).

p2
Title is a play on Wordsworth, that pompous turkey.
Panama Red was, at the time, state-of-the-art marijuana
note the attempted 3-level capitalization, where LAW (Torah) isdeemed a subset of W O R D (ie, unwritten logos); specifichalachot (religious laws) are acknowleged by the orthodox as asubset, a time/place relative interpretation, of Torah.  This isproperly a psychedelic poem, as the title indicates, since ittries to indicate (a constant theme in mysticism) the inadequacyof statements for expressing  mystic revelation.
(Pardon my English as I dash this off before the bus.)

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p3
(1)  particularly applicable to psychedelic experience

(2) Cf. PVK:  apr. "`Man does not live by bread alone' [quote fromthe Gospels of Jesus of Nazareth], he needs the wine of ecstacy."

(3)  Bodhisatva:  in Buddhist tradition as we know it in thecontemporary West, one who foregoes salvation until he/she canhelp bring all others to salvation.  Probably a romantic conceitungrounded in spiritual reality.

(4)  one of my few good poems, maybe the only one.
tzitzit -- fringes on the corners of a 4-cornered garment,prescribed to the Jewish people in the book of Exodus; warn bymost Jews on prayer shawls during morning prayers
Kabbalat Shabbat -- a set of 7 psalms (which one might associatewith the 7 lower sephirot and 7 days of the week) read as anoverture to Shabbat between time the sun goes below the horizon,which marks the start of Shabbat, and the time 3 stars (of mediummagnitude, in diverse locations) become visible (which marks thetime for the evening prayer according to most; and a day latermarks the end of Shabbat
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p5
(1)
Babylonian Shaharit -- ie, the morning prayer in exile (Babyloniabeing the place of the main exile of the Jewish people
imperial -- in the sense of:  sybmolic yoke of bondage to theempire
gartel -- for the ultra-orthodox, ritual belt worn to isolate theparts of adominable excretions from the purity of the seat of thewestern soul, viz. the belfry.  Oy, the stuyot we've picked upfrom hanging out with the apocolyptacists for a few millenialonger than they anticipated when they said there's no need forsex anymore, get high with Jesus.  Anyhow, R. Shlomo says ofneckties -- "they put the gartel in the wrong place".
kishkes -- guts, innards
quiche -- like the ambrosia of the Olympians, quiche is the staplefood of yuppies in post-industrial society 

(2) Note the conceptual distinction between forfend & forbid
That which is to be forfended falls within the realm of humanfreedom; that which one wishes heaven to forbid can only be anunquestionable ungood.

(3) "tchuve tchuve" -- a refrain from the Song of Songs, ("return,return"), customarily read at Pesach if I recall
----
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p6 -- Revisionist Akeda

The Akeda is the passage in Genesis that deals with the sacrificeof Itzhak.  The prevailing view in Judaism is to see Abraham as aspiritual hero (& Cf. PVK:  Abraham did not have to sacrifice hisson, but he did have to be prepared to do so).  A minority view,which one finds expressed in Midrash, is that the "temptation" wasto imagine that sacrificing one's son could be a divinecommandment.  In Islam, Itzah is seen as the hero, for willingnessto submit to the divine will (a point also made in Jewishcommentaries)
Fattest idol -- according to Midrash, Abraham's father was anidol-worhiper, and Abraham smashed the idols before starting hispilgrimage
The notion that a devil tried to stop Abraham from sacrificingIssac occurs in Midrash
It is said that both an angel and a devil accompany the Jewishworshiper home from synagogue on Friday evening, to see if hishome has been  properly prepared  for Shabbat
In Genesis Itzak is depicted as carrying the wood to the place ofsacrfice; by contrivance or coincidence or something deeper Jesuscarries the wood by which he is to be put to death to his place ofexecution; it is Jesus, not Itzak, who stumbles and falls underthe load.  Graves would or should have had much to say about allthat.
The Hand of Fatima is a protective symbol in Islam, worn by thesimple people as a protective amulet; it is not consideredunacceptable for Jews to wear it in Israel.
"the Awe of Yitzak" (Yirat Yitzak) -- a term for the Divine thatoccurs once in Genesis
According to tradition, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died fromshock or grief when Abraham was away on his pilgrimage to offer uphis son.
In Genesis, after the tale of the Akeda, no further exploits areattributed to Abraham, though various achievements are thenattributed to Issak
The tale of the meeting of Issac and Rivka is one of the mostpoignant in Genesis; it occurs at the time of the afternoon cool,the time when the setting sun puts a golden hue on green fields
(part II) -- there are references to the tale in Genesis of theblessing by Issac, of the tradition that the Temple was builtabout the rock on which Abraham all but sacrificed Issac (henceIslam constructed the 'Dome of the Rock', a magnificent mosquethat dominates the image of Jerusalem, on that traditional site)
Nothwithsanding, the Chumash (one of the lst 5 books of the bible-- I forget which) states explicitly that an altar is to be onlyof piled up stones; an edict that Solomon evaded in hisconstruction of the Temple (and that Herod no doubt blatantlydisregarded, which may be one of the causes for the destruction ofthe 2nd Temple)
The Talmud begins:  from what time may one recite the eveningprayer ...  when the poor man enters to eat his bread with salt.
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p8

"And Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents" (Genesis, ______)
Along lines of the I Ching, I take the image of a mountaub  Lake(I was by one near North Conway at the time) as paradigmatic ofIssac.
There'a a re-imagining of the story in Genesis of the stolenblessing by Issac
In rabbinic tradition, Essau becomes the symbol for Rome
Jacob is said to have fled with no more than the clothes on hisback.  
I am indebted to a science-fiction story, "The bartered blessing",I think, for the tone of the colloquial "headline" 

p9
"Egyptian eating brown rice"
In Genesis, Joseph is said to have eaten at a seperate table whenhe met his brothers.  Joseph is depicted in Genesis as a dedidatedpublic servant, although Egyptian Prime Minister.

p10
This, of course, is a depiction of Moses
"a consternation of handmaidens" -- Cf. Wallace Stevens, "Susannahand the Elders"
(I)  A re-imagining of the tale of the finding of Moses, Exodus___
(II) -- Moses is said (in Exodus?) to have been raised and trainedby the Pharoh's staff; hence I depict him as an upper-classEnglish schoolboy
"rainbow boy" -- an evocation of Joseph a a child, with his "coatof many colors" (on which Cf. Graves, The White Goddess)
"a mean little viper of hate" -- that is the image that emerges inExodus of the Pharoh whom Moses confronted
(III) -- Moses is associated with the Sinai (and prior to that,with the Arabian desert); as Israel has disrupted the traditionallife of the Beduin of the Negev, it is to the Bedouin of the Sinaithat one must look, until Egypt destroys their traditionalculture, for our last glimpses of Biblical scences
"yes, yes" -- modern Hebrew, `ken, ken' -- a cultural contextdependent expression, implying that the point in question is trueas a matter of course, but that there is much more to the picture
the last couplet takes a key phrase from the Kaddish(Glorification) of the prayer service, and the closing word fromthe Alenu, which is the closing required group prayer of all 3daily prayer services.
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"Prophet, Followed by Little Men in White Suits"

the image is one of Gynapedia -- one of those 2-dimensional friezedecorations where the characters are frozen in stylized motion
from my childhood in the USA 1940's:  "the little men in whitesuits" (or sometimes, `the man with the butterfly net' areattendants who capture a lunatic
"Gyro Gearloose" -- an image from 1930's? USA cartoons
"I went down to -- " etc.:  The opening phrase of Plato'sRepublic, as interpreted by Eva Brann in The Musike of Plato'sRepublic (Agon I, UC Berkeley, 1967?).  A dazzling article.
"Tarshish", apparently Spain, has in the context of the Book ofJonah (Cf. the ancient Greek map of the world) the sense of "themost distant point in the world"
As Reb Nachman notes, a spiritual crisis appears cataclysmic tothe one undergoing it, but as only a minor alteration of behaviorto others.
I note the sense in which rationalism offers an escape from thepsychic goo that is often dragged behind religion
the effect of sleep loss on increased psychic experience is noted.
the notion of "tchuva" (misleadingly translated 'repentance') asas joyous return to one's spiritual heritage is well establishedin modern Jewish religious thought
"return to the lands of your soul" -- a theme of R. ShlomoCarlebach; Cf. also a meditation exercise taught by PVK
In this poem I deal extensively with the difficulty of handling aprophetic calling, true or fantasized (and one never entirelyknows which) in modern society.

p13
(1) -- The theme song of this collection.
It was not Lao Tzu who said "I was not sure if I was a man whodreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who dreamt itself a man"
olim -- immigrants to Israel
"as those who dream" -- from Psalm 126
"troubled sleep" -- English translation of the title of Sartre's"Le Mort dans l'ame"
an embarassing feature of the Jewish liturgy is the prayer thatthe Temple be rebuilt; now that it is finally possible to do so,after 2000 years of political disempowerment, few really want to,because Jewish forms of worship have changed
a radical re-construction is called for now that the Jewish peoplehave returned to the land of Israel; yet religious Judaism remainsfrozen in the rabbinic forms of exile

(2) a seperate and not very good poem, apart from a suggestionthat the Second Temple period should not be viewed with religiousidealization, but rather seen as a degeneration of Judaism fromthe biblical model
.a3

(3) Ie, a "Song of Ascents" for the day of Atonement
a minor but successful poem.
Cf. Hamlet, "capon priest",
a spot on the Mount of Olives is known as "Jesus Fleuvit", thesite where Jesus, foreseeing the destruction of the 2nd Temple,wept.



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p14
A collection of 3 minor but successful poems that belittle theliteralistic notion of Messiach, and of the `rebuilding of theTemple'.
(1)Gush Emmunim -- group of religious right-wing settlersresponsible for founding and peopling many of the settlements inthe territories; men usually wear shorts, small elaboratelyknitted kippot, undershirt with tzitzit, and a pistol.
Clubhouse -- modern Hebrew Moadon; a typical gathering space inmodern Israel.
Shemi Messias -- pun of sorts:  Sammy Messias/"my name isMessiach"
(2) Members only -- a designer label of shirts or jeans or somesuch; here used to indicate the exclusivity of Jewish peoplehood
HaShim -- an intentionally misvocalized variant of the modernreligious Hebrew euphemism, `The NAME'.  I am critical of the useof same as a pronoun for Divinity, since the unsophisticated showsigns of tending to take it for a proper noun.
(3)  10th of Av -- a Fast Day commemorating the destruction of the2nd Temple.  According to tradition, the 3rd Temple will berebuilt on that day by the Messiach, "in the twinking of an eye" 
                                   
p15
These poems are from my first year or so in Israel, around 198586.
(1)  Narrishkeit -- narrowness; a critical view of modern neoorthodoxy.
This poem is patterned after a modern English poem -- by RichardWilbur? -- that I think appeared in the New Yorker
note the allusion to Mondrian, and the unsuccesful passingreference to misogyny.
"Their world of ideas is an apiary."  A very fortunate aphorism.
the "city walls" are the halacha, the compendium of religiousguidelines expressed as quaisi-law;  the argument is that infailing to change with the times, orthodox halacha now permitsmany things it should not, and excludes many things it shouldpermit
"Police Chief Designate" is the Messiach; Proper ActingAuthorities are something like the Rabbinute

(3) "black hat acrobats" -- Ultra-orthodox, who uniformly wearblack pants, jacket, and hat, with white shirt.
"one misty morning early" is a line from an Irish folksong; outof-place and of no particular relevance here, though it soundsnice.
In fact, some magnificent, joyously colored religous art isproduced by ultra-orthodox artists.
Elsewhere I remarked that Israel is a roller coaster ride loopingfrom the sublime to the ridiculous; one needs to be a spritualacrobat of sorts to weather it (as the ultra-orthodox traditionsays of kabbalah (Jewish mysticsism):  to safely attempt to learnit, one should be grounded by age (over 40), marital situation(married), and daily routine (habituated to thorough observance ofthe halakot).
------
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bet Josef -- a term of my own coining; the descendents of Joseph.
mitzraim -- Egypt; also `a narrow space'
the argument here, a common one among those critical of orthodoxy,is that the demands of living in exile took most of the life andcolor from the practice of Judaism, and that it is now time torestore those.

(5)  the orthodox typically see the "secular" as bereft ofspirituality, though to quite an extent the reverse is the case.
"Jews for Nothing", a play on "Jews for Jesus", is an orthodoxcharacaterization of the secular.
reference is the the parable of the Cave in Plato's Republic.
shuk -- the open-air marketplace of Tel Aviv; very vibrant, noisy,and earthy.  The high dry air of Jerusalem is appropriate to aspiritual center; the moist ocean-side air of Tel Aviv isconducive to Mediterranean earthiness.

p16
tallit katan -- short undershirt, intentionally made as a 4cornered garment so that tzitzit must be put on it, since underrabbinic intrepretation the commandment to put fringes on thecorners of one's garments applies only to 4-cornered garments.
tzitzit -- the fringes, added to a garment in accord with theabove commandment; nowaday made in a stylized manner, tho by mostwithout the thread of blue prescribed in the bible.
halaka -- the set of reiigious laws

(2)avoda zora  -- a misused term in baal tchuva Judaism:  in thebible, a phrase used in connection with what was apparentlynothing worse than an untimely offering of incense by the sons ofAaron, though it may have been offered in an inappropriate manner. In Talmud, merely a short uninteresting set of remarks on how tobehave toward Romans on their holidays.  In contemporary baaltchuva usage, (baal tchuva Judaism, a term of my coinage, refersto the sort of literalistic, narrow, rather superstitious andPuritanical version of Judaism popular nowadays, especially insubsidized Yeshivot and the like, among those who never knew thereal thing) , any thing that might be tagged idolatry.
Lama -- why?  Common expression in modern Hebrew.

(3) Fishy-folk.  Christians.  A poem this never wert.  Nor thenext two.

p20
but these 2 are ok, esp. 
(1) mitzva -- performance of a religious obligation

p21
and these are for real.
(1)  that's more or less my last word on why Jews can't acceptJesus as Christ, or even as rebbe  -- "with 1 tochas, you can'tdance at 2 [human/Divine] wedddings"

p22
(3)Menora  -- replica of the candlearbra of the Temple
Purim sameach -- Happy Purim
myrtle -- in the Book of Esther (Esther, fr. Astarte, is aBabylonian name) it is noted that her Hebrew name was Hadassah,
Hadas = myrtle.

(4) Shushan Purim, a 2nd day of Purim, celebrated only in citiesthat were walled in biblical times

(5)  A summer month, about August, characterized by semi-mourningcustoms, in which the destruction of the 2nd Temple iscommemorated by a full-day fast

(6) Vespasian -- the Roman general who destroyed the 2ndTemple,and Jerusalem into the bargain

(7) shlepper -- a poor person, with a disarrayed life, whoseexistence seems to consist essentially of shlepping self andpossessions from one place to another.

p23
the point of this poem is that sense that the USA is trying toarrogate to itself the position of moral leadership awarded atSinai to Israel in accord with the conferral of succession fromIssac to Jacob.  That birthright was in a sense finessed away fromEssau; rabbinic tradition associates Rome with Essau; as Rome wasthe imperial power of that day and the USA is of this day, I hereuse Essau to stand for the USA.  Others have noted thechildishness of the USA mind-set.

p24
of course the title is a play on Wordsworth's "Lines writtensomewhere above Tintern Abbey."
I don't like using sans as an English word; blame Shakespeare
bani -- modern Hebrew -- daughter, young (teen-age) woman

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NOTES ON MOREOX

5748 (Hebrew calendar) = 1988 C.E. (Gregorian calendar)
Tishrei is in the Fall, the 1st month of the year; Adar are in thespring, the month of Purim, which is analogous to the Christiancarneval 
Call this title page page 1; it's inconsistent but easier

p2
after a promising start, this one falls flat.
Here too one asks how prophecy looks before it has beenretrospectively sanctified.

p3
Yom haZikaron -- day of rememberance for those who died, activelyor passively,  in the defense of the land and people of Israel
  
p4
a difficult failure.
It is Bruria, the wife of R. Meir, who interprets the additionaland problematic addition to the 18 blessings of the "Shemona Esre(=18) -- in effect a curse on stool pigeons -- by saying, pray forthe destruction of the sin and the redemption of the sinner.
I try to take an inversion of the tale of Jacob and the Ladder, toexplore the phenomenology of breaking loose from the attraction ofthe lord of the flies ("better to reign in hell ..." etc. asMilton said with eloquent unhelpfulness in Paradise Lost

(2) In a Midrashic tradition, Moses was a man of bad character,who, by great self-discipline, made himself into a man of goodcharacter.

(3)  luce = Latin, light
in a prevailing tradition, the sin of Lucifer, originally the"Prince of the Morning", a great angel (archeangel?), was that hewould not humble himself before Man.
A poem this ain't.

p5
but this is.
Musaf -- the supplemental, mid-day, prayer of Sabbath & holidays
    but I think I meant Mincha, the final (afternoon) prayer
Shemini Atzeret -- the closing day of the festival of Succoth.
in one tradition, the deadline for forgivenss of the sins forwhich one begged forgiveness of Yom Kippur
the poem then follows the biblical description of the Yom Kippurscapegoat; noting the tradition that the scarlet ribbon tiedaround the neck of the scapegoat turned white as a sign that thesins of Israel were forgiven.
Impurity is a matter of blocked energy, which can be set free toflow into earth, water, etc.; it is a primitive error to supposethat the sins which cause us to feel impure can be similarly castoff by a sort of negative laying-on-of-hands.
desert of Sinn -- despite the outrageous pun, there is such in thebible.
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p6
The popular distinction in Israel is between dotim (religious) andhillonim (secular).  But hillonim comes from a root meaning tohollow.  The popular perception of the secular 80% of Israel isthat it is the rabbinic establishment that has made a hollowmockery of our religion.  Hence 'rabbonim hillonim'.

Remus Rebus Rerun
works well, nice rhythm.
Cf. American saying "don't muddy the stream you drink from"
in Judaism, the Torah is referred to as `living waters', an imagethat Jesus appropriated 
`try to try again' is poignant; it is necessary but not easy toforgive one's religion for having been sullied by its self-styledhusbandmen.

Hof Tzitzit -- contemporary Hebrew slang for the main beach inEilat, which is distinguished by tolerating women sunbathing barechested; a small step for mankind but a significant one for thegovernment of Israel.
hubris -- spiritual arrogance

"indestructible picture" -- it is forbidden in Jewish tradition todestroy holy writings.  In spirit, that would extent to picturesof rebbes.

cholent -- a staple Jewish dish of meat and beans and potatoes,traditional on Shabbat because it can be kept warm for a long time(French -- chaud, lente ) in a closed pot.  Nearly inedible.
The tradition of kashrut forbids one to eat dairy products -- eggreen cheese -- for many hours after eating a meet dish.
Shal shudas is the third meal of shabbat, traditionally offeredmuch too soon after the 2nd meal,which is traditionally too heavyand too late.	Or so the Ashkenazi do, having been slow to admitthat the weather is warmer here than it was in Germany.

p8
Picking apples.
One of my favorites.
It's about how to cope with living in Israel, et al.

Down-shifting:  in a car or truck with standard transmission,shifting into a lower gear in order to gain more control over aspeeding vehicle, especially on a downhill.

p9
the turnip poem is about writing poetry; dunno how it got in here.

p11
"We die only of cummulatuve regret." -- an unexpectedly good line,in a poem that remains uncooked in the middle.

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NOTES ON BESTHOCK

P2:  Ah, here's the dam'd turnip.

the Sin of Lilith, Adam's first wife, quickly divorced, wasaccording to Midrash, trying to get on top during conjugalcommunion.  In hassidic tradition, a sin may be "fixed" (tikkun)by in a sense doing its opposite. 

Aspects in Amber:  reference to Roger Zelzaney's Amber series ofscience fiction.

p4
Gallo -- a very cheap wine from the USA; declasse.
poem to be read with a drunken slur.
bongo-bo~~ngo   has a drunken rise and fall, like an anemic policesiren

Raggedy Ann and Andy -- childrens' dolls from USA 1940's orearlier.

p6
a few of these work.

Railroad Bill -- figure in a USA folksong.  "ain't never workedand he never will; it's just ride, ride ride ride."

p7
halil -- Hebrew term for wooden (Renaissance) recorder

I was an extra in the movie Assignment with Death, made by GolanGlobus in 1986.  Look for me in the lst desert scence with LaurenBacall.

p12
A Pornographic Movie:  
set -- in the mathematic sense.  Membership in a set is by prespecified qualities; all other qualities of entities selected asmembers are irrelevant.

p14
Flip-flop -- colloquially, to dither; also, a computer circuit
"at sixes and sevens" English expression, to be in quandry
this is about the sort of breakdown that may beset one on the edgeof mystic experience.  It was apparently noted by Akiva.

p15
I'm not sure of the location of the former Hotel Amdur, destroyedin a terrorist bombing by British mercenaries in the pay of theJordanian foreign legion in 1948.















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STEVE AMDUR:  Notes & glossary to poems

I.  SELECTED POEMS 4/89--5/92
Number in parentheses refer to lst, 2nd, etc. poem on the page

p3:
Zede Yaelim -- Grandfather mountain-goats
wadi -- arroyo

Leila -- night
Mincha -- afternoon prayer, often shortly before sunset, when thelight turns golden

--------------
p4
(1)  Notice how the signature brings up the image of a recedingboat wake.

(4)  "inky cloak" if of course from Hamlet, lst scene
     image from Paradise Lost, of course
     broken rhythm seems to work well

(5)  allusion is to Adam & Eve eating the "fruit of the Tree ofKnowlege" (a concept of which R. Shlomo Carlebach has oftenspoken)

(6)  also uses the image of the Fall of Adam & Eve
------------------
p5
(2),(3) remind me a bit of Japanese haiku
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p6
(1)  written after the terrorist murder of 2 elderly personswaiting at a Jerusalem bus stop

(2)  The Kings' Hotel is a 4-star hotel

(4)  Bet HaNeshek -- store selling sidearms and ammunition
-------------------
p7
(1)  Tiberias, with soft warm air about a lake 200 m. below sealevel, has long been associated with a certain hedonism.  Thereligiosity here is "traditional" Sephardic; a laissez-faireattitude toward the observance of both ones own and other faiths.

in a previous set of poems (Besthock) I began putting titles asafter-notes to poems; those are preceded by a colon
The title tends to set the tone for a poem, and may distort it;set afterwards, it becomes more of an ironic commentary

(2)  shlep -- Yiddish,  to trudge along, often carrying a load
------------ 
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p8
(1) ba'al tchuva -- one who has returned to the Jewish religion,typically with excessive and dogmatic zeal

Seder -- ritualized Passover feast
kippot -- customary, though not required, head-coverings worn byorthodox males

(2)  shomer mitzvot -- a baal tchuva phrase -- one who vigilantlyperforms the called-for ritual observances
The 10th of Tevet is a minor fast, commemorating the breaching forthe walls of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the 6th centuryB.C.E.

(3)  This is a poem about the notion of the Messiah in Judaism.
Two traditional themes are present:  that the Messiah will seem tobe a lowly, despised person (curiously, a theme taken up byChristianity, though the glimpse we get of Jesus from the gospelsis of a powerful, self-confident, noble person -- as Pound notedin his 'Ballad of the Godly Frere); and the rather non-orthodoxbut Zionist notion that the re-establishment of Israel as a statein 1948 should be considered part of the Messianic process.

(4)  The destruction of Haman, the villain of the Book of Esther,taken to be the archetypal anti-Semite, is commemorating by thecustom of eating 3-cornerd pastries called Hammen-tashcen, Haman'sears.

(5)  Yalla -- modern colloquial Hebrew, "let's go"
     Chava -- Hebrew for Eve; also a modern Israeli name
     Motzi Shabbat -- Saturday evening, a time for celebrationafter the end of Shabbat; typically observed by Israelis by goingout on promenades.

----
p9
(1)  a successful poem.  "The Emperor of Ice Cream" is a poem byWallace Stevens that probably means nothing.
Jeshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus, and is so used by `Jews forJesus'.
In asking `What's Messiach' (not `who') I try to bring out thepoint one must look for a process of salvation, not an individualsavior.  etc.

(2)  CD-ROM -- the lastest storage device for computers; one CDROM can hold electronically an entire encyclopedia.

(3) It is a true story, from about 1972, of New Buffalo commune inTaos.
The footnote allusion is to `Sayings of the Fathers', a chapter ofTalmud included in the standard siddur (Jewish prayerbook)

--------
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p10
(3)shmira -- guard duty

(4) assur -- in baal tchuva Judaism, forbidden (by religious law)

(5)  meesh-meesh -- apricots (modern Hebrew)
(6)  it has become almost a superstitious matter for baal tchuvasto preface even the most ordinary statement of intent with aphrase that may be rendered `if it be the Will of Heaven'
-------------
(p11
(1)  I think this poem succeeds.

(2)  Rabash -- chief of security
     shomer -- guard
     Uzi    -- automatic rifle, considered prestigious by some
-----------------
p12
(1) "distance yourself from a bad neighbor" (Pirke Avot)
    `cut off' (herem) -- the occasional practice of ostracism (eg,of Spinoza), from the dark ages of Judaism
--------------------
p13
(2)Adon -- Biblical Hebrew  -- `Lord'; modern Hebrew -- `Mister'
Katsefet -- whipped cream, from a pressurized dispenser
   
---------
p14
(1)  It is said that Israelis constantly quarrel with each other,but never "go to the limit"; in the USA they maintain a pose ofcivility, but when they fight they go for the kill.
----------
p15
(5)  Jerry Ford was a President of the USA
     The V-8 engine was the first of the super-powerful carengines, in the 1950's.  So you had Ford V-8's, etc.
------------
p16
Metapoems are poems about writing poetry

(6)  Zhlop -- Polish, slob
     Cf. Jesus  "but seek ye instead treasure in heaven"
--------------------
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p19
"Plasir d'amour ne dure qu'un instant
 Chagrin d'amour dure tout la vie."  (French folk-saying)
 This page of poems is from Hamburg, 1990
(3) Robert Burns:  "the best laid plens of mice and men
                     geng aft agloy..."
    John Steinbeck:  Of Mice and Men, a novel from which a movieof the same name was derived.
A use `derived' in its sense from calculus; a derivative is, in asense, the quintessence of that from which it is derived

(5) an unsuccessful fragment, with allusions to a song fromCarmina Burana, and the traditional singing of "Ayshe Hayil"(Woman of Valor, but in modern Hebrew, Wonder Woman) at theSabbath evening meal
(6)  Carl Shrager is, or was, a gifted lyric poet, whom I last sawin Medocino, about '68 I think.
"Suzy Creamchese" is the American Princess of the Fugs
this poem doesn't work, except for the placement of `horeshit'

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p20
(1) Quite a successful poem, except that the autobiograhic elementintrudes with the word `housemates'.  There's a light allusion toHansel & Gretel, who tried to mark their route into the Dark Woodby dropping breadcrumbs.

(3)  Shaw:  "marriage combines a maximum of temptation with amaxiumum of opportunity".  My reformulation is mathematical.  PityI couldn't think of a punch line for this fragment.

(4)  In a personal computer, typed material is input to the CPU(Central Processing Unit), and then output to the VDT (VideoDisplay Tube).  I spent the month before the collapse a loveaffair typing an autobiography on a PC.
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p22
(1) The plaque in question notes that Dammtor Plaza, across fromthe railroad station and close to the former Jewish section ofHamburg, was used as an assembly point for deportation.

(4) bimah:  central lecturn in a synagogue, used for reading theTorah.  The Hamburg synagogue was destroyed during Kristallnacht.
the Cheshire Cat is an invention from Alice in Wonderland; the catdisappears from the tail forward, until only the smile is left.
"in a cat's ass" -- USA 1940's; scatalogic phrase meaning `perimpossible'.

(5)  There's an allusion to the sort of winter scences painted bythe Dutch masters; in Hamburg, the freezing of the lower Ulsterlake is an unusual and festive event.
"Now here's a man" -- that phrase comes from Yeats
"a man in a million" -- an exceptional person
The punch-line of this poem is in the signature date, which if Irecall was essentially that of the collapse of the USA's nominalattempt to resolve the Iraq crisis without a ground war.  At thetime many feared that such a ground war might escalatedisasterously, if not cataclysmically.
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