Blue and White | Israeli Poems by Sami Bsoul

Sami Bsoul, PhD

Some loves cannot be explained. They can only be shown through the skin.

What Is Israel For You

When they ask me, "What is Israel for you?"
a thousand words could come
but I say nothing
I roll up my sleeve
If you cut my flesh
my blood runs blue and white
That is all
The rest is wind
Ask no more
 

Writing a poem about Hebrew in English words is like painting the wind. The depth I speak of lives in the aleph-bet, in the otiyot can never be translated, but I will try.

The Deep Heart of Hebrew

You see a word
I see a flame
a small sign
that God spoke
before the mountains were born
Every letter is a stone
from that hidden mountain
No one knows what the letters carry
But I carry them in my bones
Between one stone and the next
there is a silence
not empty, but full of breath
That breath is the name
that cannot be spoken by any mouth
except the one that loves
The letters do not shout
They rest in the dust of the throat
then rise like a pillar of cloud
by day
like a pillar of fire by night
Whoever walks between them
walks in a holy place
This tongue is not a tool
It is a garden of hidden wells
Every word draws water
from the deep that was there
before the first day said Let there be light
This tongue is not for the ear alone
It breathes into the hidden place of breath
and becomes a name
that was written before the morning star
Ask me to explain
I cannot
A flame does not explain light
It gives light

 

Before shoes, before roads, there was a ground that knew my name before I was born.

Desert of Israel 

I take off my shoes
The ground is not dust
it is a living thing
The desert breathes under my feet
hot stone, soft sand, a thorn that knows my name
This is not a path I choose
It is a path that chooses me
My soles remember every step
where the mountain burned with a whisper
where the sea split and closed
where my father's father walked without water
and found a well
Now I walk
No sandal, no voice but the wind
The ground says: You are not above me
You are from me
So I place one foot, then the other
The desert does not ask for my song
It asks for my weight, my heat, my small shadow
And I give it
Bare
Not a stranger passing through
a son returning to the dust he came from

 

I did not choose Jerusalem because she is beautiful. I chose her because she chose me first.

Jerusalem

They speak of gold and spice
I speak of stone
Not the stone of a crown
the stone of a wall
that has felt every morning
and every shadow
I have walked her gates
with empty hands
She did not ask for my song
She asked for my dust
So here I stand
a breath, a bone
a small flame
at a high gate
Jerusalem
you are not a name I sing
You are the ground
I did not choose
and cannot leave

 

The God who spoke to Moses still speaks. You just have to listen through the flame.

The Name That Burns

Do not ask me to describe Him
He has no shape, no shadow, no resting foot
But I know Him by what He said
to Moses in the fire that did not consume the bush:
I will be what I will be.
Moses hid his face. He was afraid to look
I know Him by the song of David
a shepherd boy who struck a giant with a stone
and danced before the ark with all his might
David called Him my rock, my fortress, my deliverer
I know Him by the wisdom of Solomon
who asked not for gold or long life
but for a listening heart
And God gave him understanding like the sand on the shore
I know Him by the mouths of His prophets
Isaiah who saw the Lord high and lifted up
Jeremiah who wept over the city
Ezekiel who stood in a valley of dry bones
and watched them rise
Not one of them saw His face
But each one heard His voice
You are my servant. I have chosen you
I have not cast you away
That is my God
The God of the bush, the harp, the temple, the tear, the bone
He knows my name
I know His

 

A scent does not ask permission to live in your lungs forever.

The Sea I Carry

The sea in Israel has breathed into my bones
I left the shore once
The smell has never left me
It rises without warning
blue, white, living water
my own breath
Ask me what it is
I have no answer
Only the sea and me

 

© Sami Bsoul, 2020