Composed for How Desolate Lies the City: South Side Tisha B’Av (Chicago, IL; July 31, 2017), this poem interprets chapter four of Eicha in light of the starvation of resources facing our public school system.
Alas! Alone she sits, vacant lots, empty streets
Abandoned by companions, absent lovers to greet.
Bustling communities pushed out, in retreat
Bereft remnants blamed for their woes.
Summer is in full swing and due to the fact that the Jewish calendar is solar-adjusted, it’s the time of year when we as Jews
This is part of Jewschool’s poetry series on Lamentations for our modern cities and urban justice, by Adam Gottlieb: “America feeds on its children: / Bodies run through pipelines”
A lamentation poem, based on Eikha, chapter 5, on today’s Chicago, by Stephanie Friedman: “Whatever we imagine renewing, we must imagine anew. The sanctuary we would rededicate, the city we would rebuild, will not be some prelapsarian state to which we will be passively restored…”
Lamentations 4: An elegy from eikha for today’s cities: “What you see is the same; what you hear is a cup / Full of coins and a homeless guy asking for change.”
As we prepare for Tisha B’Av, thinking of all the ways people continue to see their cities ravaged by bloodshed and dislocation, it may be helpful to round up some poignant Tisha B’Av pieces from years past on this site.