Harvey Shapiro: "Psalm"

I am still on a rooftop in Brooklyn
on your holy day. The harbor is before me,
Governor’s Island, Verrazano Bridge
and the Narrows. I keep in my head
what Rabbi Nachmann said about the world
being a narrow bridge and that the important thing
is not to be afraid. So on this day
I bless my mother and father, that they be
not fearful where they wander. And I
ask you to bless them and before you
close your Book of Life, your Sefer Hachayim,
remember that I always praised your world
and your splendor and that my tongue
tried to say your name on Court Street in Brooklyn.
Take me safely through the Narrows to the sea.



"Psalm" by Harvey Shapiro. Text as published in A Momentary Glory: Last Poems, edited by Norman Finkelstein (Wesleyan University Press, 2014).

Curator's note: Tonight begins the Jewish observance of Hannukah. Many thanks to Anita Goldstein and Chana Bloch for suggesting this poem, which, though written for Yom Kippur, certainly seems apt.

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer.

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Harvey Shapiro: "July"

You poets of the Late T'ang send me messages this morning.
The eastern sky is streaked with red.
Linkages of bird song make a floating chain.
In a corner of the world, walled in by ocean and sky,
I can look back on so many destructive days and nights,
and forward too, ego demons as far as mind reaches.
Here, for a moment, the light holds.

"July" by Harvey Shapiro, from The Sights Along the Harbor: New & Collected Poems. © Wesleyan, 2009.

Photography credit: Saul Santos Diaz (originally color).