Tag Archives: Israel

THE NOT QUITE DEAD SEA

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THE NOT QUITE DEAD SEA

Thirteen hundred and thirty eight feet
below sea level

Unless you live around there
and then all of the other seas
are a long way in the air

Driving through the West Bank
watch the signs as you drop away

After the first six feet you are living with the dead

Down, down, down, you go
foot by foot and year by year
heading for Herod’s health spa
King David’s refuge, and source of balms
used in the mummification of young King Tut

Eight and a half times saltier that the ocean

You float in the water so thick that you can’t sink
and air so thick the sun won’t burn you
as you look up and East into the hills
where the scrolls were buried

You don’t have to read them, you can feel them

ON THE OTHER HAND

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged , , , / / by

ON THE OTHER HAND

In Haifa
we visited a home
with original paintings by Chagall
(You know how he can always
make you feel like you can fly)
and a bomb shelter
under the stairs

Stopped at a wall by a bus stop
with one stone for each child
killed in the explosion

And looked down on the harbor
across the order the beauty
of the gardens of the Bahai

Looked out across the water
to Lebanon where the last
rockets flew

NEW TRIBES

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , , , , , , , , , / / by

NEW TRIBES

From the old tribe of Isaac
and the old tribe of Ishmael

Israeli and Palestinian
couples and their children
come together by the sea and share

We are teaching the skills of listening
the skills of sharing and skills of hearing

The rules are simple
tell your truth as your truth only

Assume as you listen
that the person makes sense
If they do not seem to make sense
assume you need more information,

By the end of the weekend
the eight year olds are sleeping over
teenagers walk on the beach till dawn

A new tribe being formed