SHIRIM: A JEWISH POETRY JOURNAL - guest editor Seymour Mayne

Internationally known California journal features Canadian poetry:

SHIRIM: A JEWISH POETRY JOURNAL

Jewish Canadian Poetry

Seymour Mayne, Guest Editor

Double Issue Vol. XXIX, No. II (2011) & Vol. XXX, No. I (2012)

From the Preface by Seymour Mayne:

“The double minyan of poets represented in this Canadian issue offer a diversity of voices, each writing out of and in response to the Jewish heritage and identity affirmed by the community as a whole. There is a new assurance in these voices, an absence of apology, while the usual internal dialogue and debates animate their language and expression.

On the whole, Jewish Canadian poets try to balance their articulation with a keen sense of what is the most appropriate style that their poetics dictate. It is rare that they experiment for its own sake. What they have to say shapes the way they write; and they expect that their writing will be heard and shared by others. The balance of the private and the public informs their work in style and content.

The concern with the past and its ever-present presence, the response to family members, usually parental, and the religious and political challenges in contemporary Jewish life invigorate the poetic conversation. The intensity of speech highlights their poetry in a manner that has been crucial to the development of Canadian literature since the 1930s, affirming its immigrant and ethnic diversity. These are poets who speak out of a different cultural matrix than American and British poets. Though much is shared in sensibility and thought, there is a unique Canadian sound and timber to their words.”

SHIRIM

Jewish Canadian Poetry

CONTENTS

Preface by Seymour Mayne, Guest Editor ............................6

Asa Boxer

The Snake and the Lamb ........................................................8

Elizabeth Brewster

For Martha ................................................................................9

Alphabet .................................................................................10

Saying Kaddish......................................................................11

Jason Camlot

To Be Nemesis of the Morning Prayers .............................12

Sukkah ....................................................................................13

Etrog ........................................................................................14

Leonard Cohen

Born in Chains .......................................................................15

Different Sides .......................................................................17

Susan Glickman

Jacob’s Ladder .......................................................................19

Between God and Evil ..........................................................20

Shel Krakofsky

Stanley Cup Seder .................................................................21

Legacy .....................................................................................23

A Runner at First ...................................................................24

Rochelle Mass

I came to join the women .....................................................25

From the kitchen window ....................................................27

Hands on a gun .....................................................................28

Seymour Mayne

Real Estate ..............................................................................30

Mother’s Day .........................................................................32

Der Zeydehs Tallis ...................................................................34

Isa Milman

I’m Searching for the Keys to the Hostel in Vienna,1946 .35

My Father’s Shoes .................................................................36

Sharon H. Nelson

The Liberation ........................................................................37

From The Marks Of Our Single Species .............................38

Kashruth Rosh Hashanah 2006 ..........................................39

Marty Newman

Exceptional Thresholds ........................................................40

Salamander ............................................................................41

The Myopic Devil ..................................................................42

Merle Nudelman

The Last Chanukah ...............................................................43

Ruth Panofsky

Suburbia I ...............................................................................44

Suburbia II ..............................................................................45

B. Glen Rotchin

Houdini...................................................................................46

Yiddish ....................................................................................47

Robyn Sarah

A man has to make waves ...................................................48

The Trust ................................................................................49

Karen Shenfeld

My Father’s Hands Spoke in Yiddish .................................51

Angel of Death .......................................................................52

Funny Girl ..............................................................................53

Kenneth Sherman

Friday-Night Services ...........................................................54

Seminal Cloth.........................................................................55

David Solway

A Bad Job ................................................................................56

The Children of Sderot .........................................................58

When It Dies ..........................................................................60

Rhea Tregebov

Grace .......................................................................................62

Elana Wolff

K. .............................................................................................64

Grenade ..................................................................................65

Biographies ............................................................................66

Subscriptions, book orders and submissions may be sent to:

SHIRIM

259 St. Joseph Avenue

Long Beach, California 90803

Submissions must be accompanied by a stamped,

self-addressed envelope.

This double volume of SHIRIM includes issues

Vol. XXIX, No. II (2011) & Vol. XXX, No. I (2012)

Copyright 2012, SHIRIM – Intermedia Productions

SHIRIM is published semi-annually.

Subscriptions are $7.00 per year ($10.00 outside of U.S.A.)

Single copies are $4.00

Editor Marc Steven Dworkin

Guest Editor Seymour Mayne

Founding Advisor Stanley F. Chyet, Of Blessed Memory

Graphic Design Marilyn Shenker

Cover Art Sandy Dubrow