Note: “Yosef” is the earlier, more accurate Hebrew pronunciation of the name “Joseph”. … The good Lord knows I am a simple man, Miryam; I took you for wife when you were too young to know sunlight is a blessing, rain more so and the earth is hard. I know how to make things strong … More Yosef’s Lament
Note: “Miryam” is the earlier, more accurate Hebrew pronunciation of the name “Mary”. … Before you, Yosef, I only knew the roughness of the white goat’s flank on my cheek. The mottled one bucked wild whenever it saw me come to milk, so your ginger beard was a surprise, like green things in the dessert. … More Miryam’s Lament
If I danced, it wasn’t because I wanted to please him. What happens when I use my limbs in that way isn’t something I can quite explain to those who use mere words to speak. If I knew grit and dirt once, I do know sweat and ill-gained jewels now. … If I move, I … More Salome’s Lament
They asked for my daughters. They smilingly offered cracked pomegranates when the market was done, asked for the sweet release only they could give. My girls grew quiet, scarlet-cheeked, tossed the insult back at them, ran alone through whipped streets, dust in the wind, home. They were no rotten jewels ill-formed, but permissions, whole and … More The Lament of Lot’s Wife
Lord, you know I was no man of renown in those days of old, when there were giants in the earth. Good men walked straight then, but there was no rest for the wicked or the saint when the Lord decided that he could not wait for the thing he did not have. Good men … More Noah’s Lament
Mercy, Lord. I cannot learn to weep again. I have forgotten how. I am no match for a gentle hand and a wondering eye. I was unable to mop her tears up with gold embroidered sleeves, heavy weight of God’s light. … When I saw you by the gate, mud-daub and dust dark with the … More Gabriel’s Lament
When you ordered me to sacrifice my own for love of you, I said no words. You knew what I would do, and still you asked for the boy who brought joy to my days, water for my throat, the boy you promised. A son who would make every one of my wanderings through town … More Abraham’s Lament
The Lamentations are a series of poems I started in 2013 when I found that the men and women of the Bible rarely spoke in the first person. Without clear explanations for their behavior, these fascinating men and women, often dealing with strange, and perhaps unimaginable circumstances to a denizen of the 21st century, were … More an explanation of the lamentations
anna-christina betekhtin 