Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Haviva Pedaya

PLEASE WITH GENTLENESS

please with gentleness
please with forcefulness
release my bound soul
please I need longing and sighing
more than what exists
may I yearn
and nothing come
but may I not stop asking
please give me words you once gave me pure
and I will say
please have pity
today today and not tomorrow
please declare that even if I tarry
I will surely come
and I will place myself in things please
remember me
for having wished you for me and for not
for my being a person and dead
for a soul’s striking the body’s walls
wishing to be uprooted
striking itself crying
please blessed one
please bless please
understand me for I am barren
for I have no one to whom to reveal my sickness
for I did not understand in time that my body is me
and when I understood I did not know my soul
I found no outlet for my crying when it strikes
as there isn’t
please understand me for I need some time
to calculate the chances of flowering
whether it will be more devastated
and I wither from terror
and vomit every morning
and every night threatens touch
and knowledge netherworld reaches netherworld
and I have no more chance of creating worlds in my image and blood
and giving them spirit
one thing have I asked and it I seek
your dwelling in me your giving me a spirit
one thing I cried when I remembered myself
for then when I prayed I lacked nothing
and now that I desire nothing
everything is trampled in me please be gracious to me and pity
bless my days purify them
raise them like a daughter crying over the apple of her eye
please if you can

PLEASE WITH GENTLENESS

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PLEASE WITH GENTLENESS

please with gentleness
please with forcefulness
release my bound soul
please I need longing and sighing
more than what exists
may I yearn
and nothing come
but may I not stop asking
please give me words you once gave me pure
and I will say
please have pity
today today and not tomorrow
please declare that even if I tarry
I will surely come
and I will place myself in things please
remember me
for having wished you for me and for not
for my being a person and dead
for a soul’s striking the body’s walls
wishing to be uprooted
striking itself crying
please blessed one
please bless please
understand me for I am barren
for I have no one to whom to reveal my sickness
for I did not understand in time that my body is me
and when I understood I did not know my soul
I found no outlet for my crying when it strikes
as there isn’t
please understand me for I need some time
to calculate the chances of flowering
whether it will be more devastated
and I wither from terror
and vomit every morning
and every night threatens touch
and knowledge netherworld reaches netherworld
and I have no more chance of creating worlds in my image and blood
and giving them spirit
one thing have I asked and it I seek
your dwelling in me your giving me a spirit
one thing I cried when I remembered myself
for then when I prayed I lacked nothing
and now that I desire nothing
everything is trampled in me please be gracious to me and pity
bless my days purify them
raise them like a daughter crying over the apple of her eye
please if you can

PLEASE WITH GENTLENESS

please with gentleness
please with forcefulness
release my bound soul
please I need longing and sighing
more than what exists
may I yearn
and nothing come
but may I not stop asking
please give me words you once gave me pure
and I will say
please have pity
today today and not tomorrow
please declare that even if I tarry
I will surely come
and I will place myself in things please
remember me
for having wished you for me and for not
for my being a person and dead
for a soul’s striking the body’s walls
wishing to be uprooted
striking itself crying
please blessed one
please bless please
understand me for I am barren
for I have no one to whom to reveal my sickness
for I did not understand in time that my body is me
and when I understood I did not know my soul
I found no outlet for my crying when it strikes
as there isn’t
please understand me for I need some time
to calculate the chances of flowering
whether it will be more devastated
and I wither from terror
and vomit every morning
and every night threatens touch
and knowledge netherworld reaches netherworld
and I have no more chance of creating worlds in my image and blood
and giving them spirit
one thing have I asked and it I seek
your dwelling in me your giving me a spirit
one thing I cried when I remembered myself
for then when I prayed I lacked nothing
and now that I desire nothing
everything is trampled in me please be gracious to me and pity
bless my days purify them
raise them like a daughter crying over the apple of her eye
please if you can
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
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Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
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