When I was putting together that book that Bob mentioned Poems
from the Hebrew, the Crowell was supposed to bring out
one of these years or decades.
I discovered a poet I never read before named Yehuda Amichai.
And he is a magnificent poet.
And he's I guess in his late 40s.
Here's a little poem of his called, "They Call Me".
I want to read three short poems of his.
They call me.
Taxis below and angels above are impatient,
at one and the same time they call me with a terrible voice.
I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming down, I'm coming up.
Well, I probably have too many poems
to read altogether anyway.
I think I'll skip one of his poems.
I'll read this, the third one.
"The Place Where I Have Not Been."
The place where I have not been I never shall be.
The place where I have been is as though I was never there.
People stray far from where they were born
and far from the words which were spoken
as if by their mouths and still wide of the promise which
they were promised.
And they eat standing and die sitting.
And lying down they remember.
And what I shall never in the world
return to and look at again I am to love forever.
Only a stranger will return to my place.
But I will set down all these things
once more as Moses did after he smashed the first tablets.