Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.15.147.215
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
When I was young, my father wrote poems, lovely poems, in Yiddish. In one poem, he called me, his only son, his 'kadish'l, the one who would recite the Kaddish, the Prayer for the Deceased, for him upon his passing. It was a touching poem, one which stayed with me for years, for decades... ...The call came on a December eve, six days before Chanukah. I said, 'Baruch Dayan Ha-Emes,' Blessed be the Judge of Truth, and tore my shirt, a sign of grief. In doing so, I had missed something that I was told... ...The message I'd missed rent my heart, much as 'kind Brutus' dagger had rent the heart of 'his lover,' Mighty Caesar: My father's cremation was scheduled for midnight, a scant five hours away... ...I tried to stop his cremation, but I was in Chicago and his body was out in L.A. It was 1989: No cell phones, no email no internet. I failed. My father's sacred body would be burnt to cinders, his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean, in wanton disregard for Jewish Law, an act of desecration as grotesque as those performed by Messrs Hitler and Eichmann in the hell-holes of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka... ...I struggled with my emotions. There ensued a battle for my soul. He was my father. I had loved and honored him. Yes, we'd had our disagreements. Fierce ones at times. But never, ever could I have envisioned this, Cremation! What should I do? I was his kadish'l, the one designated to recite the Prayer for the Dead for him. And now? My father's body would be no more. But what of his soul? Jewish Tradition tells us that he who cremates himself has no portion in the World to Come--not even in Hell. Rather, his soul is condemned to wander the Universe as an eternal outcast, begging for forgiveness, shunned by all. Would that be my father's destiny now? I picked up the phone and called my Rav (Rabbi). ...I was instructed NOT to mourn for him. NOT to sit shiva. NOT to say kaddish. Not to mourn for him, for my father, who had meant everything to me, who had set me on the path to loving my fellow Jew and all of mankind. It was too much. I blacked out. I slept... ...It was on a March afternoon in 1990, several months later. I was standing in the kitchen of my small apartment, preparing a meal, my back to the living room, when of a SUDDEN, I sensed his presence behind me. Spooked, I glanced behind me, witnessed the rustle of my living room curtains, saw the window ajar where his soul had entered, and then beheld his apparition taking shape before me, a slight, trembling, bony version of my father, heading straight toward me... ...I cringed. I winced inside. But I held my ground. He approached, closer and closer. When he stood within two feet of me, he opened his ghastly mouth, and in the voice of a man utterly forsaken and abandoned, the plaintive whimper of soul utterly without hope, he pleaded with me: 'Please, my son, my kadish'l. Pray for me. Pray for my soul.' With that, he backpedaled, receding slowly at first--then turning, racing, flying through the window yet ajar, curtains rustling. Gone. Vanished. Never to return. ...
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required