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Contests : Margaret Reid Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2008 : Fourth Prize
TWO ZINNIAS
Two zinnias in a glazed vase
clipped by nuns' careful scissors,
are the only decoration in this spartan room
in a convent in Jerusalem
but it is clean, the mattress comfortable
flagstone floors, yellow- and red-ochre,
have been polished to a gleam by passing shoes
these one hundred years, even more
We have returned to Jerusalem
after an absence of some months—
a jittery city, it is more intolerable than ever
horns constantly honk, faces do not smile
congestion and pollution, agitation,
congregate in its centre
together with beggars,
street musicians, religious Jews, Arabs
an incongruent conglomeration
which beckons in a manner I cannot fathom
and repulses with vengeance,
as though one reaction triggers its opposite,
a contradiction of emotions
that is disturbing considering I lived here
for so long and loved it with passion,
wrote love poems in dedication,
painted its landscapes from every angle
until my ability wilted and the brush
could no longer respond to my commands
So that earlier today when I walked
through this city in the heat of its summer
and watched dusk extinguish the gold from its stones,
I noticed a nostalgia for it—for the once-Jerusalem,
almost expecting the present
to disappear behind a curtain
and lo! enter the Jerusalem of old,
the city I knew and yearned to return to,
smaller, happier, more beautiful
These are my thoughts now, late,
in this sanctuary amidst the city's insanity,
this secluded quaint convent,
where quail and jay and gay flowers reside,
whose energies are lovely, light,
a place that does not disturb
nor disappoint my memories
While the two zinnias in the vase
blink red and pink
in the heat of the night
and soothe me
This poem won fourth prize in the 2008 Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books. Author Helen Bar-Lev received a $250 award. Winning Writers assists this contest. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About Helen Bar-Lev
Born New York 1942, has lived in Israel for 37 years. BA in Anthropology. Since 1973 over 80 exhibitions of her watercolor and pencil landscapes. Her poems and illustrations have been published in numerous internet and print anthologies. Coauthored, with Johnmichael Simon, Cyclamens and Swords and Other Poems About the Land of Israel (Boston: Ibbetson Street Press, 2007). Editor-in-chief of Voices Israel Annual Anthology. Senior Editor, Cyclamens and Swords Publishing, member of the Israel Artists' and Sculptors' Association. Visit her website at www.helenbarlev.com.
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