What began as a war on Israel on October 7, 2023 has spread to a war on Jews everywhere. There are few safe havens for Jews anymore or anywhere. With people submitting in poetry for publication their thoughts that encompass their concerns, hopes and their joy, Lay of the Land is making the space for such expression.
David E. Kaplan, Lay of the Land Editor.
YOU CALL ME A ZIONIST
By Tim Flack
You call me Zionist
as though the word were a curse,
as though it burns like shame upon the tongue.
But I wear it as a crown.
It is the echo of prophets,
the dream of exiles,
the oath whispered by rivers of blood:
Next year in Jerusalem.
You call me Jew
as though it were a slur,
as though history had not proven
that every empire which spat that word
is dust beneath our feet.
Jew means covenant,
it means we outlasted Pharaoh, Rome, Babylon,
it means we walked through fire and sang still.
You call me Zionist
and I do not shrink.
It means my grandparents’ bones rest easy
because their children came home.
It means the desert blooms where they tried to salt the earth.
It means we write Hebrew on the wind again,
unbroken, unafraid.
Call me Zionist,
and hear in that word the thunder of Masada,
the prayers of Vilna, the rifles of ’48,
the voices that refused to be silenced in Auschwitz
and rose again in Tel Aviv.
I am Jew.
I am Zionist.
Not your insult, but my anthem.
Not your dagger, but my sword.
Not your shame, but my glory.
You call me Zionist.
Yes.
And I answer:
Am Yisrael Chai.
A DANCE OF HOPE
By Fonda Dubb
A dance of hope is all I want
To spread my wings and travel to other places, other lands, where people live with different smells, different colours and different faces.
How I would love to fly above the sky and look down at other places
I would dance to the heartbeat of a drum, and dance as my heart beats over other lands
To explore the universe
And spread my wings
To love all other places
To comfort those that grieve in other places
And breathe the air of other places
To give out love and charity
And embrace all those that live in other places
To be united and have no pain
With all who live in other places
As I float above the sky
Looking down at other places
And bring peace and love to all I see
To say Amen for God’s creation of other places and dance lovingly to tunes of love of other lands and other places.
I pray for all of us living in this fruitful land which brings us light and love.
Mankind has to show and feel the beauty of a single word
HUMANITY
The biggest secret of it all
That’s what teaches us to live with pride in this precious land, that God created for us all
To show respect and love for one another
Let us pray together
in unison
For a better us
To live together in peace, harmony and love
So we can all share God’s Gifts together in this Holy Land
Where our only wish is for us to dance A DANCE OF HOPE together in a deep and troubled land.
About the poets:
Tim Flack, Cape Town, South Africa.
Fonda Dubb, Beth Protea, Herzliya, Israel.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
