LA JOLLA, California — Julie Potiker, Robert Nejmias, and Lisa Schwartz were the featured poets for the second evening of Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices’ 15th season on January 17 at the Astor Judaica Library in the Lawrence Family JCC. They all read their own works and the audience was totally engaged by the creativity and beauty of their poems, as well as their self-assured presentations. Examples from each are at the end of this article.
Potiker, with a background as an attorney, a former JCC president and currently a certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and founder of the Balanced Mind Meditation Center, began her segment with a biographical poem. Other poems connected to her work, advice on how to love oneself.
Robert Nejmias creates both poetry and music. This great-grandfather read three of his seventy plus original works in Spanish, which, although we all did not understand, his sister, Sara Artenstein, read the English translations beforehand, so that we knew what the lyrical poems were about.
Lisa Schwartz confirmed why she was the Poet Laureate of Newtown, Connecticut. Her poems are clever with originality in word choice and subject matter. Although most have a humorous bend, her one about Sandy Hook Elementary School (printed below), brought us to tears. Following a half hour of open mic, the audience enjoyed beverages and snacks while interacting with the presenters.
The next Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices event will be on Zoom, Tuesday evening, March 14, 7:00 p.m. and will showcase student poets from the San Diego Jewish Academy, Torah High, as well as students from the Portland Jewish Academy. Jewish students from other San Diego schools are still being recruited.
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HARDWARE STORE LOVE by Julie Potiker
I love the smell of hardware stores
Dixie Line, Ace and Home Depot
They remind me of J & B Discount Store
In Elyria, Ohio
My Dad opened this magnificent place
When I was just a girl
He drove a great distance every day
To keep us in better schools
.
When I read about huge pileups
. On the Ohio turnpike in the snow
I think of all he sacrificed
. So we could learn and grow
Grow in a place that had people like us
Where antisemitism would be less major
Because Chanukah candles would be lighted
In the homes of many of our neighbors
.
To his big, wonderful store
. Where employees were like family
. My father they adored
I’d wander the aisles of plumbing, tools
Shampoos and clothes and toys
And think about how lucky I was
. To have all this and more
Whenever I feel a longing
To connect with my fabulous Dad
.
I can take a big stroll through a discount store
For that I will always be glad
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AL MAR de Robert Nejmais
Mar immenso, mi Viejo y fiel amigo
Aqui vengo de Nuevo a relajarme
Porque estando de cerca aqui contigo
Siento paz en tus aguas al mojarme.
Cuantos dias y noches ya son muchas
. Solo a ti he confesado mis acciones
Porque tu si me atiendes y me escuchas
Y me llenas el alma de iluclones.
. Te recuerdas de mi que desde niño
Me trajeron mis padres a observarte
Desde entonces entro en mi ese cariño
Que y nunca he podido yo olvidarte.
Hoy te noto yo un poco alebrestado
. Estrellando en las rocas con tu oleaje
Solo tu sabes bien que te ha pasado
Y en silencio te guardas el coraje.
Por mi parte, ya todo te lo he dicho
Sabes bien el contexto de mi vida
Y aunque sepas yo sigo mi capricho
De venir a encontrarte en tu guarida.
Ya te dejo la noche esta muy fria
Voy a casa a prender la chimenea
. Que calienta me cuerpo cada dia
. Charlaremos mañana que te vea.
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TO THE OCEAN by Roberto Najmias
Immense sea, my old and faithful friend
Here I come again to relax
Because being close here with you
I feel peace in your waters when I get wet.
How many days and nights are already many
Only to you I have confessed my actions
Because you do attend to me and listen to me
And you fill my soul with illusions.
Do you remember me from when I was a child
My parents brought me to watch you
Since then that love entered me
That I have never been able to forget you.
Today I notice you a little happy
Crashing on the rocks with your waves
Only you know well what has happened to you
And in silence you keep your courage.
For my part, I’ve already told you everything
You know well the context of my life
And although you know I follow my whim
Of coming to meet you in your lair,
I’ll leave you the night is very cold
I’m going home to light the fireplace
That warms my body every day
We’ll talk tomorrow when I will see you.
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WE HANG ON by Lisa Schwartz
There are things I cannot write about:
Hatred, war, the killing of children.
But this is the work of the poet, isn’t it–
To give voice to the unthinkable?
I have always steered clear of darkness,
Preferring trivial takes over brutal despair.
Yet there are moments when my conscience howls.
There are moments I cannot hang on.
I am a coward
Running from a savagery that stills my pen,
From the cries of shattered hearts,
The crush of vacant beds,
The void of empty classrooms.
Emerson once wrote,
When it is darkest, men see stars.
I will bank on this hope,
Though the scale of our grief
Belies any dream of solace.
Still, we hang on.
Everything we know is threaded by contrast
The bark fly and the blue whale,
The atom and the cosmos,
Stone and sea and sky.
We, too, are coiled in contradiction,
Helixes twisting in a tandem loop
Helixes twisting in a tandem loop
Of sublime and appalling.
We are both things at once.
We are inexplicable.
We are each other’s magnitude and bond
Said the great poet, Gwendolyn Brooks.
I say we are each other’s everything.
We can love each other in spite
Of our wounded, aching souls.
I say we must hang on.
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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com