My shelves are stuffed with books in small-print, not just for
the Sabbath, as allegedly were Philip Larkin’s. Mine
are filled with small-print for the week days too, their lore
the lariat that binds me to my roots with verbal twine,
enabling me to understand just how I was created
from the past that is not past as I learn from small print,
which shows me that the books’ worldview, though old, is not outdated,
as I attempt to point out in all verses that I mint.
Their words jump straight into my head, and then jump out,
refashioned and refreshed, as if by Sabbath rest renewed,
but to all the unhappy readers who claim that I flout
traditional interpretations, I am sometimes rude.
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.