Dina Yehuda

Dina Yehuda began writing poetry when she was 12. She was inspired by her seventh grade English teacher, Penelope Bozarth, who demanded excellence from her students. Dina grew up in New York and studied English literature in Columbia University. She came to Israel and married her husband Yair in1981. Dina lives in Mizpe Netofa in the Galilee. She has seven sons and a daughter and feels truly blessed with her family and community.

The following works are copyright © 2008. All rights reserved. No distribution or reprinting in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  

Legacy

Blinded by angels
who had wept into his eyes
as he lay bound on the altar,

my grandfather, Isaac
was always closer to heaven than earth
and could not see his son’s face.

so my father, Jacob
became another sacrifice
in the long years of love
unraveling.

one more dark thread
of secrets
woven into
this many colored coat of mine.

  

That July

When we were nineteen
and life was unguarded
on the green lake in Pennsylvania,
summer stretched between us
like a flat white towel.

Now it’s July again,
not summer though
in Cape Town
where I count the pebbles
which dot the shore
like small regrets.

Had I not met you
I could lie back dreamless.

  

Tree of Life

“it is a tree of life for those who cling to it” from the liturgy
for my father

i.
You kept a picture
of Yetta,
she’s standing in a row of fifth grade girls,
squinting in the sun

 
But you never spoke of her
nor of your other sisters,
Chaya and Sarah,
after the war

 
You found yourself alone
in the garden,
a tree too full of knowledge,
struck dumb,
you reached for the other tree
and clung to life.

 

ii
Speak to me now,
are you with your  sisters
now grown ,
no longer dust in Auschwitz

Are  the boys out from Cheder
are the girls skipping rope
do you hear their voices
as they stroll in the garden
 
You walked to your Huppa alone
no father
no mother
no little sisters strewing flowers.

  

There is no one left to tell me.
Speak to me.