Ray Greenblatt has lived in New England, the West Indies, and along the Eastern Shore. He has written short stories, essays, and poetry which have been published across the U.S. in periodicals as diverse as America, English Journal, and Joseph Conrad Today.
He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Anthony Byrne Prize. He was also the editor of the magazine General Eclectic. A teacher for many years Ray Greenblatt has taught writing in the Philadelphia Writers Conference as well as spoken at the John Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California.
The library is destroyed–totally!
O, sadness! O, misery!
It is like my limbs lopped off
like memory ripped out of my skull.
I sit on a wall in the relentless sun
the eternal dust
arms raised above me my only shade
not caring as I lament.
I observe the passers-by
the beggar, the leper, the blind woman
the uncaring children
and realize they are the essence
on which books are based.
So once again writing must return
as the gods always do
but in different disguises,
life must go on.
IN TEL AVIV
We sit under a bright umbrella
heat showering like a gold excrescence
on the cobblestone square around us,
dining on S. Peter’s fish
the bones becoming minuscule script
we must analyze before discarding.
As Tel Aviv grew out of and
away from ancient Arab Jaffa,
the white wine bubbles nothing like
American Manischewitz,
here you will find no kreplach for bulk
nor kugel for dessert.
Tanned young people play volleyball
on the beach as bonfires blaze
and striped cabanas flap in stray winds,
Bauhaus buildings soaring behind them
gleaming white and pure as paper
in a bleached Hebrew scroll.
CARTHAGE
Sea azure as usual when we go to the beach I look for we lie and loll she is no longer x-ray technician |
For other contributions by Ray Greenblatt, please follow the links below:
- CARCASONNE …
- SAILING ON CORFU …
- PAINTERS ON THE MED
- SOUTHERN FRENCH TOWN …
- RIVIERA WEATHER …
- A PERFECT PLACE …
- FOLLOWING THE GUIDEBOOK …
- GREEK MAGIC …
- MINORCA: NEWLY ARRIVED …
- PASSING THROUGH TOULON …
- CIRCLE OF LIGHT …
- THE ANCIENT AIR OF ORVIETO …
- MONTE CARLO …
- ATHENA ENTERS …
- NAUSICAA …
- A HARD SONG …
- GOLDEN AFTERNOON – MENTON …
- ON THE BEACH AT PIRAEUS …
- CONTEMPORARY LUXURY …
- TOO LONG ON CORFU …
- CRAZY IN SICILY …
- AN ATHENIAN DAY …
- ON PAROS …
- TO THE BEACH …
- THE ISLAND THAT DISAPPEARED …
- I, SAPPHO …
- HERAKLEION …
- TOURISTS …
- BARCELONA …
Poetry in this post: © Ray Greenblatt
Published with the permission of Ray Greenblatt