Voices: a poem from Haifa

                                         the Kotel

a place of prayer

of unity

of connecting with our past

of touching history

July, 1967 I touched it

it touched me – oh the awe!

December, 1973 my aliyah to the Holy Land

in recent years with each return visit to the Kotel

the women’s section – diminished

October, 2012 women again arrested – at the

Kotel – for reciting the Shema!

woe be me!

beyond our reach for so many years and now

when in the hands of Israel, a shrine

to the Dark Ages

what has become of tolerance

mutual respect? wherein do they

usurp my spirituality, my religion,

my God?

bodes evil for the future of this unholy land

Ahmadinejad a threat? hah! home grown

Khomeneism is at our doorstep

no! no! no!

Edit Gavriely, Haifa

October 18,2012

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