Ghazal: Jerusalem
- Ghazal:Jerusalem
In the cracks of the Wailing Wall is the love of Jerusalem.Saffron in the souks' stalls, the love of Jerusalem.
Baal and Aphrodite survive in the shattered rocks.In the kippah and the monk's cowl is the love of Jerusalem.
City divided like the flanks of a cow the butcher quarters:Jew, Muslim, Christian and Armenian call home their love of Jerusalem.
Horizon of gold haze and gold dome:the hookah hastens the nightfall for the love of Jerusalem.
Chalk and limestone and the clay of Adam,Eden's fall also for the love of Jerusalem.
Who will bring flowers where Caliph and Turk once warred?—When will a child's footfalls echo the love of Jerusalem? [End Page 9]
Through reading texts of Jewish myth and ritual, Valerie Wohlfeld, who was brought up in an assimilated environment, found her own way to explore her ancestral religion in her poetry. Her first collection, Thinking the World Visible, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Her poetry book, Woman With Wing Removed, is being published in October 2010 by Truman State University Press. She holds an MFA from Vermont College.
