New Addresses

TO JEWISHNESSAs you were contained inOr embodied byLouise SchlossmanWhen she was a sophomoreAt Walnut HillsHigh SchoolIn Cincinnati, Ohio,I salute youAnd thank youFor the factThat she receivedMy kisses with toleranceOn New Year's EveAnd was not taken abackAs she well might have beenHad she not had youAnd had I not, too.Ah, you!Dark, complicated you!Jewishness, you are the tray On it paintedMoses, David and the TenCommandments, the handwriting On the Wall, DanielIn the lions' den On which my childhood Was servedBy a motherAnd father Who took youTo Michigan Oh the soft smellOf the pineTrees of Michigan And the gentle roarOf the Lake! MichiganOr sent youTo Wisconsin I went to camp there On vacation, with meEvery year!My counselors had you My fellow campers Had you and "DocEhrenreich" whoRan the camp had youWe got up in theMornings you were thereYou were in the canoesAnd on the baseballDiamond, everywhere around.At home, growingTaller, youThrived, too. Louise had youAnd Charles had youAnd Jean had youAnd her sister MaryHad youWe all had you And your BibleFull of storiesThat didn't applyOr didn't seem to applyIn the soft spring airOr dancing, or sitting in the carsTo anything we did.In "religious school"At the Isaac M. WiseSynagogue (called "temple")We studied not youBut Judaism, the one who goes with youAnd is your guide, supposedly,Oddly separatedFrom you, though thereIn the same building, you In us children, and it On the blackboardsAnd in the books BiblesAnd books simplifiedFrom the Bible. HowLike a Bible with shouldersRabbi Seligmann is!You kept my parents and meOut of hotels near Crystal LakeIn Michigan and you resulted, for me,In insults,At which I feltChagrined butWas energized by you.You went with me Into the army, whereOne night in a foxholeOn Leyte a fellow soldierSaid Where are the fuckin Jews?Back in the PX. I d like toSee one of those bastards Out here. I d kill him!I decided to concealYou, my you, anyway, for a while.Forgive me for that.At Harvard youLanded me in a roomIn Kirkland HouseWith two other studentsWho had you. You Kept me out of the Harvard ClubsAnd by this time (I Was twenty-one) I foundI preferredKissing girls who didn tHave you. Blonde Hair, blue eyes,And Christianity (oddly enough) had anAphrodisiac effect on me.And everything that opened Up to me, of poetry, of painting, of music,Of architecture in old citiesDidn t have you I wasDistressedThough I knewThose who had youHad hardly had the chanceTo build cathedralsWrite secular epics(Like Orlando Furioso) Or paint Annunciations–"WellI had Davidin the wings." DavidWas a Jew, even a Hebrew.He wasn't Jewish.You're quite Something else. I had Mahler,Einstein, and Freud. I didn'tWant those three (then). I wantedShelley, Byron, Keats, Shakespeare,Mozart, Monet. I wantedBotticelli and Fra Angelico."There you've Chosen some hard onesFor me to connect to. ButWhy not admit that IGave you the lifeOf the mind as a thingTo aspire to? AndWhere did you goTo find your 'freedom'? toNew York, which wasFull of me." I do know Your good qualities, at leastGood things you didFor me–when I was tenYears old, how you broughtJudaism in, to give ceremonyTo everyday things, surprise andSymbolism and things beyondUnderstanding in the Synagogue then IWas excited by you, a rescuerOf me from the flatness of my life.But then the flatness got youAnd I let it keep youAnd, perhaps, of all things known,That was most ignorant. "YouSound like Yeats, butYou re not. Well, happyVoyage home, Kenneth, toThe parking lotOf understood experience. I'll beHere if you need me and hereAfter you don tNeed anything else. HERE is a qualityI have, and have hadFor you, and for a lot of others,Just by being it, since you were born."TO MY TWENTIESHow lucky that I ran into youWhen everything was possibleFor my legs and arms, and with hope in my heartAnd so happy to see any woman(O woman! O my twentieth year!Basking in you, you Oasis from both growing and decayFantastic unheard of nine- or ten-year oasisA palm tree, hey! And then anotherAnd another (and water!I'm still very impressed by you. Whither,Midst falling decades, have you gone? Oh in what lucky fellow,Unsure of himself, upset, and unemployableFor the moment in any case, do you live now?From my window I drop a nickelBy mistake. With You I race down to get itBut I find there onThe street instead, a good friend,X—- N——, who says to meKenneth do you have a minute?And I say yes! I am in my twenties!I have plenty of time! In you I marry,In you I first go to France; I make my best friendsIn you, and a few enemies. I Write a lot and am living all the timeAnd thinking about living. I loved to frequent youAfter my teens and before my thirties.You three together in a barI always preferred you because you were midmostMost lustrous apparently strongestAlthough now that I look back on youWhat part have you played?You never, ever, were stingy.What you gave me you gave wholeBut as for tellingMe how best to use itYou weren't a genius at that.Twenties, my soulIs yours for the askingYou know that, if you ever come back.