survivors

SURVIVORS

Survivors state with great insistence
that proof of physical existence
is spiritual, a living Jew
providing virtually a view
of God’s imprimatured imperative:
survival of the moral narrative
of man’s creation from the time
of Adam, made from primal slime,
as physical as filthy earth,
enabling God to bring to birth
a being that resembles Him
far more than any seraphim,
for unlike God, who is man’s mentor
but does not penetrate his center,
man’s body is the evidence
of spiritual coincidence.

Inspired by a remark made by Leon Wieseltier, when interviewed by Charlie Rose on January 13, 2009 together with the two main protagonists of “Defiance,” Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, and the director Ed Zwick. Discussing the survival of about twelve hundred people in the forests of Byelorussia. Wieseltier said: “For survivors, physical existence is spiritual existence.”

© 2009 Gershon Hepner 1/14/09