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The Joshua Poems represent the chronicle of my grandson’s first five years as I had the privilege of taking care of him day after day while his mother earned her living. They are poems about his awakening to the wonders of language, about his fearless labeling of the world and his marvellous questions about the way it works. They also record my wonder at the way he joined this world, the Jewish people and their history, and the paradox that thinking about this inspired. In the end, they remain a testimony to the miracle of his existence and the enduring love I bear him. I believe the simple and yet not so simple poems herein set down capture the complex set of feelings every grandparent experiences as another generation enters the world, blood of their blood and flesh of their flesh. I stopped writing the poems when he entered the age of reason and started to act upon the realization that the adult world is as much one of guile as it is of kindness.  But rereading them still brings tears to my eyes, for he remains a song in my heart.

 

Click here to view three of the shorter poems from the collection: How Come?; It Is Very, Very Good; and You. Hatikva is the national anthem of Israel. It is the Hebrew word for hope. Invariably references to the Hebrew Bible are liberally sprinkled throughout these poems, but so are the mundane experiences of minding a child: shopping at Sears, driving and walking to school, the aftermath of a birthday party. Even Paddle-to-the-Sea, that classic Canadian children’s story, puts in an appearance in the final poem of this collection.