Remembering a Visit to Yad Vashem

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn of Beth Israel Worship Center, Wayne, NJ, 

will lead another pilgrimage to Israel next week.

The poem I've selected to share with you today is a sobering remembrance

from our visit to the holocaust museum in Jerusalem,

during my last pilgrimage in 2006.

Janusz Korczak & the orphan children.

Photo credit: yadvashem.org

AT YAD VASHEM

Israel Pilgrimage--2006

We are given an hour, only an hour

to walk through on our own—

It’s quiet

Barely any talking

No smiling

People move slowly

observing, listening

some brush away tears

some shake their heads

We walk along the Path

of Righteous Gentiles

hesitate at trees

planted in honor

of Oscar Schindler

of Corrie TenBoom

We see shoes of the dead, eyeglasses

photographs, paintings

poems

The eternal flame shudders

as we swallow hard at the words:

Never Again

Outside, we pause at the bronze

of Janusz Korczak embracing

the orphan children—

the ones he accompanied

into a crematorium

At the Children’s Memorial

the darkness is assuaged

by so many mirrored reflections

of flickering candles

We read—

1,500,000 children

An hour, only an hour

is even too much

for us to bear

Maude Carolan Pych

On Our 13th Wedding Anniversary...

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Thank you, Bob, for 13 loving years...

Maude & Bob at Breezy Point, 2017.

DODI LI

For Robert Pych on Our Wedding Day, October 21, 2006

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."

Song of Songs 6:3

Shirley says

my heart is a thimble

and God's love is the ocean

and He wants to pour all that love

into my little heart

I have learned that the Lord

has made my heart

a little like His own

that the heart is limitless

in its capacity to love

that it may seem

the heart's chambers

are about to burst

…yet there's still room

that bodies grow older

…but not our hearts

I have learned

that God

is the Restorer of Hearts

the Master of mending

broken ones

that although sorrow

may visit us

the heart keeps its rhythm

…hope is not shattered

utterly

I grew tired of the Titanic song

weary of Celine's heart going on

and on and on

but now I understand

the heart does go on

I've also discovered

my heart is undivided

when it professes

Ani le dodi ve dodi li

and speaks of

two bridegrooms

One of my soul…Jesus

and one of my heart…Robert

and I believe

one of the best things there is

about knowing God

is that He is Love

…that we love

because He first

loved us

He just keeps on

filling our thimbles

with inexhaustible oceans

so we'll always

always, always

have Love

to give

Maude Carolan

Getting to Know Him...

Image credit: Amazon.com 

MIST-ERY

I beheld You, not clearly...

In a fogged mirror Your mysterious Image

Materialized, then faded in diaphanous mist.

At the shining of re-birth, the fog thinned,

Evaporating like dew, droplet by droplet.

Learning day by day to know You,

The mist grows sheerer, more lucent...until finally

Upon entrance through the billowy veil

Into life forevermore,

Your Presence will emerge before me.

Squinting eyelids will flutter

As I awaken to brilliance

And the last layers of mystery

Dissolve into sparkles upon Your feet.

Maude Carolan

Get Ready:

It'll be here soon...

Release Date: November 20, 2019

It's Time for a Walk in the Woods...

Photo credit: pinterest.com

SYMPHONY OF THE WOODS

I meander through woods

along a beaten pathway in North Jersey

and the music begins immediately

There’s chittering of crickets

and the cacophony of other insects

that are hanging on to life

until the frost, which will come soon

Leaves rustle in the trees

some whoosh past me

as they fall to the ground

and there’s a crunch

of dry ones beneath my feet

I hear an occasional snap of a twig

and the scamper of squirrels

or chipmunks, a raccoon

or field mice scurrying unseen

up and down tree trunks

or frolicking in the dense brush

There may be hidden deer or a bear

Some sounds I cannot identify

Birdsong completely fills the air

all kinds of birdsong—

chirps and coos

and warbles and squawks

I even hear the flutter

of wing flaps

Tying everything together

is the faintest whistling in the breeze

that feels something like tinnitus

ringing in my ears

but it’s not unpleasant

All the sounds blend together

into Nature’s symphony—

a serenade to my spirit

as I stroll

Maude Carolan Pych