Gideon Oknin Poet Lyric

Notes About The Poem

Aunt Beck

Life put Aunt Beck through many a test
But she believed all that happened was for the best
Her Jewish faith may seem dated
But orthodox did not mean segregated
She edited her Ohio High School magazine
Another world back then, ideals were clean
She had uncles who fought in the Civil War, 
When I knew her, that past seemed a distant shore.
Strange how time compresses, it seems so long ago
Ancient history was yesterday, so much I didn't know.
She had ten siblings, that all made their mark
A small town outside Cincinnati, farmland like a park.
Never married, she held her own when life got hard
She coached my mom in Latin for four years at Barnard
She had a sense of humor, laughed gently at life's absurds. 
Shortly before she died, she recited her mother's poetic words

     Grant unto me to know the wrong and love the right
     To live pleasing in your sight
     Grant unto me hands that are pure
     That I know when sets life's sun
     The work that these poor hands have done
     May still endure.

Aunt Beck liked the song Shenandoah, voyageurs canoeing on the flow
I heard it on the radio, a song from two centuries ago:

     Oh, Shenandoah, I long to see you,
     Away you rolling river.
     Away, I'm bound away,
     Across the wide Missouri.

Odd how it takes a melody—a few notes to start,
to summon up a snapshot of her humor and kind heart.

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