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
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
BACK IN AMERICA – NEWS OF BOMBING
Before we came to Israel
this was happening in our world
now it is happening on our street
A TOAST TO OUR HOSTS
People of Israel
thank you for opening
we have fallen into your hearts
A CALL
Five times a day
Moslems climb their towers
to interrupt my prayers
TEMPLE MOUNT
Seven Christian sects
can fight for a hundred years
on who has the right to wash a window
Seeming so in love with the questions
that any answer is the death of the beloved
JERUSALEM STONE
Church, house, grave, wall
no give at all
JERUSALEM
Three days now on the Mount of Olives
watching the old city postcard change
from two to three dimensions
THE WALL
Walls are for wailing
and also for tumbling down
Unconscious fears rise in concrete form
conscious choices less visible rise with it
Inside and out of the builders and the wailers
there are a million voices
starting to hum that old Jericho tune