Two Poems for Vayishlach: Jacob and the Angel

It's been a busy week without time to write a dvar but thankfully, Yehuda Amichai wrote a poem on Jacob struggling with the Angel, which inspired me to write a poem that echoes some of his lines.

You can find Yehuda Amichai’s poem below. My poem is called At Dawn - and one of the best things about it is that it is included in my forthcoming collection Book of Failed Salvation, to be released on December 7, 2021 with Ben Yehuda Press - it was the first poem in what became a series of poems that eventually became a chapbook!

AT DAWN

                                    After Jacob and the Angel, by Yehuda Amichai

You will return to the east at the height of summer

already the fans in my apartment are turning fast

at dawn

I can’t stop thinking about the poem you sent

I tan my skin

my swimsuit leaves white lines for you

to see and touch the way a humid summer does

slowly, oblivious to age

Time is marked

by the appearance of morning purple and fire flies

by when to water the plants

another flask of sunscreen a new week

The city turns into a village by the sea

In the grocery store the label Grown in California makes me grin

I buy an extra pint of berries for good measure

as a charm

the last word from you I have is yes, all caps

but the weather forecast is not always accurate

I keep thinking of the poem you sent

imagine that long wave coming to the shore

I water the plants

I spot another flower on the vine

Soon you might be in this garden, too

At dawn

you might let me go, into the lurking autumn of my body

Do we even need to struggle? You already know my name

From: Poems of Jerusalem and Love Poems, Yehuda Amichai, Sheap Meadow Press, translated by David Rosenberg

Image above is a detail from Marc Chagall’s Above the City