Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

First Yom Kippur without Joyce: ———- What Am I Doing with my Life?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Bob at 8:50 am on Tuesday, September 28, 2021

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

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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: 

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6 Comments »

Comment by Brad Dechter

September 28, 2021 @ 10:14 am

Loved it- thanks for sharing!
Where you say “somehow invulnerable” I might have said “vulnerable”.Different slant.
Hugs to you Bob!
L’Shana Tovah!
Brad

Comment by Kumari De Silva

September 28, 2021 @ 10:18 am

I am sorry for your loss. Joyce sounds like a lovely woman.

Comment by Bernard White

September 28, 2021 @ 12:02 pm

Amen. Yes, my brother. your words were well worth my time. One day a year to atone. to be honest with ourselves. to see things as clearly as we can in the quiet of Yom Kippur. I count myself among the Jewish Faithful. I don’t have the DNA to prove it, I do have the spirit to prove. The Belief in the All Loving and All Merciful and Almighty God of our Earthly Father, Abraham. Our Rabbi, Jesus. Our belief in the forgiveness of sins. Our genuine and sincere desire to be written in the book of life this coming new year. Yes, we are all in this together. I am grateful to see Joyce’s smile in yours. Your words and your smile.

Comment by Jan

September 28, 2021 @ 4:32 pm

very loving , thanks for posting . Maybe pick up a new testament someday. I Love the holiday, no matter who we are ,it is a good thing to contemplate the things we need forgiveness for and we ask and receive

Comment by Don Larson

September 28, 2021 @ 7:34 pm

Hi Bob,

Great story of how a person seeks solace while suffering.

Don

Comment by Mimi

October 16, 2021 @ 12:56 pm

It seems to me if more religious people would contemplate what it means to be humble instead of feeling always underlying guilt; if more other religious people would look to the Ascension intead of the Crucifixion; if more people who are not religious would contemplate everyday, who they are…and what we’re here for, really and truly…and every day instead of a forced (more guilt built in) & ‘plutonic’ one day a year, we’d all be healthier as a human tribe.

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