First Edition features new original works by Northern California Jewish writers. Appearing the first issue of each month, it includes a poem and an excerpt from a novel or short story.
by judith offer
People hear it
And they change the radio station.
They see it and they click to another web page.
It is spoken
By their grandparents
Who have time for such nonessentials.
Their parents hear it
And say, “I never really learned it.”
But on occasion, it makes them cry.
There is so much music in it
You are not sure:
Are they speaking, or singing?
There is so much pain in it
The storytellers invented fools
So people could bear to listen.
Poetry and Yiddish
Are languages of blessing,
Of ceremony, of remembrance.
They are languages of double meanings,
Of hidden meanings,
Of words dangerous in the wrong hands.
Poetry and Yiddish
Are lost in libraries
Boxed and buried.
They have gone underground.
They are turning to dust,
Turning to what grows to something new.
Judith Offer has written five books of poetry and dozens of plays. Her most recent book of poetry, “Double Crossing,” features poems about Oakland, where she lives with her husband, Stuart. www.judithoffer.com