“Not altogether a fool,” said G., “but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool.”

—G. to C. Auguste Dupin, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”




“Ah! I’ll never, never meet such a man again. You ought to have heard him recite poetry—his own, too, it was, he told me. Poetry!”

—The Russian to Marlow, about Mr. Kurtz, in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness



“I don’t like poetry.”

“Have you ever heard any?”

—Mrs. Masterson and Montag in Ray Bradbury’s “The Fireman”







Poems





Holocaust Education: A Poem

The Times of Israel — The Blogs, May 5, 2024



plump geese pecking...

haikuniverse, July 11, 2023


no silence…

The Poetry Pea Journal 1:23 (July 2023), p. 113

and Poetry Pea Podcast, Series 6 Episode 18: Inner & Outer Weather, June19, 2023


Poem of an End

The Jewish Writing Project, May 15, 2023

Prague, Czech Republic

Tisha Be-av and Tu Be-av 82 liftrat katan/August 2022

After Yehuda Amichai’s “Poem Without an End”



Door leading to the sanctuary of Prague’s Spanish Synagogue. Photo — Shai Afsai

 

Melissa’s Poem

Dear You—Poems Through The Heart (Red Penguin Books, 2023), pp. 5–6

First published in The Stray Branch 29:26 (Spring/Summer 2022), pp. 171–172

 

Providence’s “Orpheus Ascending” by Gilbert Alfred Franklin. Photo — Shai Afsai

 

Another Chance

Dear You—Poems Through The Heart (Red Penguin Books, 2023), pp. 73–74

Earlier versions published in Ibbetson Street 49 (Spring/Summer 2021), p. 38, and in Poetica Review 10 (Summer 2021), p. 17


Valentine’s Day Haiku

Dear You—Poems Through The Heart (Red Penguin Books, 2023), p. 1

First published as “alone with a new moon…haikuniverse, February 14, 2021


Bookstore Haiku

Dear You—Poems Through The Heart (Red Penguin Books, 2023), p. 31

First published as “in the poetry aisle…haikuniverse, January 15, 2021


REI

haikuniverse, January 17, 2023


tucked in a bed…

The Mainichi, December 1, 2022


Birdless Thanksgiving

Living Senryû Anthology (October 2022)


Listening to poets talk

Poetica Review 15 (Autumn 2022), p. 55

First published in New English Review, January 2021


overhearing a conversation...

haikuniverse, July 26, 2022



From The School Librarian

Lighten Up Online, December 2021


sunset...

Better Than Starbucks, November 2021, p. 31


pond beavers flood...

Better Than Starbucks, November 2021, p. 31

First published in the leaves fall (Red Penguin Books, 2021), p. 2


Exegesis

CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Fall 2021, pp. 125–126


awakened from a nap...

haikuniverse, August 30, 2021


This I Believe New England - Finding Humor

The Public’s Radio, July 20/21, 2021

First aired on November 24/25, 2020

An essay based on the poem “Old Shekel’s Teeth”


Grazing time at dawn…

Haiku Journal 67 (June 2021)


There once was an old poet named Frost

Winner of The Friends of Wanskuck Library Limerick Contest, May 12, 2021


borrowed book…

Failed Haiku — A Journal of English Senryu 6:65 (May 2021), p. 57


languishing in line…

Failed Haiku — A Journal of English Senryu 6:65 (May 2021), p. 57


At the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino

JewishBoston, April 30, 2021

First published in JewTh!nk, January 25, 2021


The Overcoat

Defenestration, April 2021


nowhere to hide…

The Poetry Pea Journal of haiku and senryu, Spring 2021, p. 81

and Haiku Pea Podcast, Series 4 Episode 6: Exaggerated Perspective, March 15, 2021


snow day…

The Poetry Pea Journal of haiku and senryu, Spring 2021, p. 50

and Haiku Pea Podcast, Series 4 Episode 4: Humourous haiku, February 15, 2021



After a Snowstorm

New English Review, March 2021


No raven becomes…

Failed Haiku — A Journal of English Senryu 6:61 (January 2021), p. 17


Ode to a Coffee Mug from Slater Mill in Pawtucket

Literary Yard, December 31, 2020


Dear Editor of the Local Jewish Newspaper — An Epistolary Poem

JewTh!nk, December 23, 2020

Inspired by a ruinous attempt to have a This I Believe New England radio essay, Finding Humor (based on the poem “Old Shekel’s Teeth”), reprinted in a Jewish monthly the week before Hanukkah


Gilbert Alfred Franklin’s outdoor Providence sculpture “Orpheus Ascending.” Photo — Shai Afsai

 

Orpheus Howling

Eternal Haunted Summer, Winter Solstice 2020


Teaching

Ibbetson Street 48 (Fall/Winter 2020), p. 17