A Paratrooper Poet Walks into a Painting Class

There is a lush nature preserve in Gush Etzion called “Oz VeGaon” that was created in 2014 in reaction to the murder, by Palestinian terrorists, of the three boys Gil-ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel. The name of the reserve, in Hebrew, is an acronym created from the boys’ names.

Oz VeGaon has become a vibrant tourist attraction that includes a playground, picnic and camping area, gazebos, a library with historical volumes on Zionism, and is a center for courses, lectures, performances, agricultural camps for youth, and family simchas. It has been visited by many Israeli and foreign dignitaries.

And hosts a wonderful painting class taught by artist Avital Sharansky, wife of the renowned former Prisoner of Zion, Natan Sharansky.

I have the pleasure of being in that class.

And one day, a paratrooper walked in.

He was on reserve duty and his assignment was guarding the nature preserve. He smiled, asked us if everything was okay, we said yes, and Avital invited him to paint with us.

“Thanks,” he said, “but I don’t paint, I write poetry, mostly in English.”

As both a poet and a teacher of poetry, my ears perked up.

“Please read us something you’ve written,” I asked.

And so it came to be that Staff Sergeant Daniel Bard, in full battle gear, pulled out his phone and read us this:

Open the doors

Open the doors of your heart

So love can flow from it with each beat

Widen your stride open your feet

For life moves forward there is no retreat

Open your eyes so they can see

The wonder and beauty of the world

For if they are closed how could it be

The glorious ability to take in all that lies before thee

The planet is so very vast

Look hence forth for changed cannot be made the past

The sea of time rages on our bodies must sail upon it with a fortuitous mind to be the sturdy mast

As we crash and curl upon and beneath the waves

We wrestle with society for to it we do not wish to be slaves

And in our thoughts we find ourselves often in crisis

When left to the realm of man and its own designed devices

But no I shall not be ever bound by chains

For I shall step lively through the time that for me remains

I relish joy and wonder for my heart has indeed known pains

Nature’s balance is manipulated by man

Yet I connect to what has been left by the natural order of life’s plan

And through city streets I may folly and fall

Yet I can never refuse the wilderness’ call

Upon stream and star my ship does ride

For by mankind the natural order is often defied

Yet lost as our race may be

I shall let the radiant beauty of each setting sun be the eternal guide for me.

We were deeply moved by his poem, and I asked him, “Where did you learn to write poetry like that?” He told me that his father bought him the book One Hundred and One Famous Poems, and maybe that influenced his style.

Daniel’s story

Daniel grew up in Chevy Chase Maryland, near Silver Spring, to parents Marcela Kogan and Mitchell Bard. His mother is a freelance writer, and his father has a PhD in political science and runs a non-profit called the “American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE).” Mr. Bard is also a writer, and he operates and founded the Jewish Virtual Library, an educational website.

“I made aliya with a group of like-minded individuals, who came to serve in the IDF, in December, 2017, after doing a gap year through Masa, during which time I lived in Tel Aviv and volunteered at a school and at an animal shelter, and lived in Jerusalem and volunteered with Magen David Adom.

“During my time in Israel, I noticed the soldiers and how they were young adults such as myself, and when seeing a soldier in Hebron and looking into his eyes, I understood the only difference between us was that he was a Jew born in Israel and I was a Jew born in America.

“I understood and I felt it was my duty as well to come and serve in the IDF and protect the land of Israel.

“I had a counselor on my program who had been a paratrooper and when I told him I wanted to be a paratrooper like him, he said, ‘No way, you are like a noodle, the army will break you.’ I responded ‘No no, I’m like a cooked noodle, I bend I don’t break.’

“As often is the case, the strongest motivational factor to do something is when somebody tells you that you can’t do it.

“When I finished my gap year in Israel and returned to my home in Maryland, I awoke in my bed that I had slept in for twenty years, and didn’t feel at home. Then I knew that I must make aliya.

“I landed in Israel on December 27, 2017, and began living with my ‘garin’ (aliya group) in Raanana in the Absorption Center. In March, 2018, I was drafted into the paratrooper brigade after having passed the ‘gibush’ (a pre-IDF training orientation to determine if potential recruits are right for a particular unit).

“I was a Lone Soldier, and having a much lower Hebrew level than my comrades, it was often a struggle, especially during the combat medics course. I pushed my commanders to send me to it during basic training, but with high motivation and the desire to succeed, I returned to my unit a proficient medic for my team.

“After being released in July, 2020, I went to work in agriculture, picking fruit in the Golan Heights. In October of 2021 I moved to Moshav Paran in the Arava (the desert valley that extends from the Dead Sea to Eilat, along Israel’s border with Jordan) and took a job managing a pepper farm, which is what I am doing currently.”

How he began to write

“I think ever since I was little, I have liked poetry and been drawn to it, and believe that the ability to make anything poetic or see it in a poetic light allows a person to turn even the most basic and bland elements or occurrences into something epic, grand and beautiful.”

He says that now he would like to take a long trip, as do many Israelis after the army, and to travel to the east or to South America, in search of adventure, “To a destination that is so far away and hard to get to that by the time I reach it, I will have been so satisfied deeply by the journey, that reaching the destination is not as important. As I set out to wander, I expect that the world will take me to places beyond the fathomable.

“And one day I’ll return to Israel and perhaps continue in agriculture or open a camping business of some kind.”

Daniel put his thoughts about being a paratrooper into poetry.

A Paratrooper’s Creed 

It is with honor

It is with love

It with pride and with a smile

that those who may call themselves brave

Battle the evil and the hate

that burdens the beauty

of wonderous life

This land is sacred

For it is earth it is home

to many who share its fruits

When dawn breaks the day

we shall stand strong

Our will unbreakable

When terror tides to trouble the innocent

We shall shield it

with a heart that beats for love and for freedom

We shall strike

with a sword driven by a prideful soul

The land of Israel and her people

will not be trod upon

by any who may be consumed by hate

We shall extinguish the flames of destruction

By the strength of love

In the grimace of malicious snares

We shall stand

We shall smile

And sing AM ISRAEL HAI

We shall stand beside her people

in the rains of the hills of Jerusalem

We shall stand upon her mountains

in the freezing winds of the Golan

We shall stand beneath the scorching suns

of her deserts in the Negev

We shall stand and we shall fight

with pride and joyous determination

in desire for love and peace

We shall fight

for the freedom to live in peace

We shall fight

so that we need not fear

We shall stand

in the ominous shadow of animosity,

through the horrid hails of hate

Through the terrible thunders of terror

We shall stand through darkness

yet we shall not be overcome by it

For in our hearts

is love for life

In our souls is a beacon of light

that cannot be relinquished

even through the blackest of night

We are the lochamim [warriors] of the land of Israel

We shall stand for love of our life

We shall stand for love of our land

So that one day…

As we all do,

One day when we fall upon it

It shall be to Rest In Peace

He may have come to Israel as a Lone Soldier, but now that he’s here, Daniel is not alone anymore.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist, artistic director of Raise Your Spirits Theatre and the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com.