First Yom Kippur without Joyce: ———- What Am I Doing with my Life?
by Robert M. Katzman © September 28, 2017
Witching hour approaches
As Yom Kippur
The Heavier than Plutonium
Jewish Day of Atonement
Looms like a shadow
Over a year of decisions
*
Kindnesses, Cruelties,
Mistakes, Anger
Frustration, Lust
Vengeance, Regret
and every other
Good and Bad emotion
*
Yeah, it may all be Fantasy
and Jewish Fairy Tales
What will God
Choose to do with us
But the Concept is Cosmic:
*
What am I doing with my life?
*
We’re a small number
Of an ancient people
Lingering on from
The Old Testament
Somehow
Invulnerable
To disappearing
Into the Mists of Time
*
Regardless
Some of those
Revolutionary ideas
From that time
Of Assyrians
Greeks and Romans
Changed the world
*
My world has
Become much smaller
Of late
Death erasing Decades
Passion and Pain
Evaporating
*
I reflect all the time
On what I could have
Done better
Been nicer
Been less busy
All of that
*
An irrational desire to
Reach back through Time
As if it’s
A dark crowded closet
The size of
The Milky way
Filled with a million
Moments crushed together
And pluck words
I wished I had never said
Out of the air
And make them
Never to have
Been spoken
*
Hard to be perfect
Hard to be
Constantly aware
Of one’s actions
*
But it’s worth taking
One day a year to
Think all of this over
Whatever your religion
Ethics, beliefs
Doesn’t matter to me
I don’t care who is what
*
My ancestors
Probably weren’t Judges
In
The Old Testament
Who am I to imagine
I can be someone
over anyone else?
*
I know one thing for certain.
I miss Joyce
And she was good
I don’t need
Religion or myth
To know what I’ve lost
I miss that pretty girl’s smile
*
L’Shana Tovah
To my Jewish friends
And to anyone else
Who realizes that
Though
Floating on Grief
My words
Are universal
Not just for
So tiny few
of the Jews
*
I wish all of us:
A Better Year
And
As I am
Beyond my power
Compelled to say:
God Willing
********
In my Magical Universe, with my publishing of this forgotten poem, 4 years of Time, 48 months, 1,460 days telescoped and collapsed into Celestial Dust. Time moves at both the speed of lightning and glacially. A mystery.
******************
*
Publishing News!
(Currently seeking representation as a speaker/poet for hire)
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1) $3.95; (2) $5.95; (3) $7.95; (4) $8.95 (5) $9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9) $13.95 (10) $15.95 (15) $19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools can call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My two latest books are available in the Racine Wis Public Library. Both books are labeled: 921 KAT. ROB on their spines, in autobiography Dept.
Signed Books are also for sale at:
Studio Moonfall Bookstore, 5031 7th St. Kenosha, Wis, email: hello@studiomoonfall