Two themed poems by B.E. Kahn

Two Poems
by B.E. Kahn


Cypress Trees

spires of splendor
stand guard beneath the Acropolis.

Forged into the mountain,
exclamation points.

Fountains of tightly sprayed green,
so straight, not even bowing to

the red-roofed church dome below.

++++++++++++++++++++

Immigrant Gods, Absent Address

Our gods, and we brought
several of them to America,

do not inhabit our mountains
in temples. We do not look up

and see their habitations. Circled
above the horizon, no columns

Doric, Corinthian, Western Walls
on high to ease our cares, remind us

we are the underlings, though
exalted in service to them.

I love this daily mountain memo
of heights in Jerusalem, Athens. Spirit

manifest everywhere. And the people
dance and say what they feel

about the dance, their lives
connected. Shrines, memorials

on the roads, candles beam.

Author bio:

B.E. Kahn, native Philadelphian, now lives in Wynnewood, Pa. Her poems have appeared in Harrisburg Review, CQ, California Quarterly, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets Review, Earth’s Daughters, Bridges, A Jewish Feminist Journal and in the June/July 2007 online Tupelo Press Poetry Project, and New Verse News online journal (Thursday November 28, '08) as well as other publications. Her awards include First Prize for Poetry at the Philadelphia Writers Conference, a Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Grant and a Pew Grant for Studies in the Humanities.