Ecology of Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai - Poem for the Second Sunday in Advent, Year B
The Englewood Review of Books curates a weekly series of classic and contemporary poems that resonate with the themes of the lectionary readings. Here is one of the poems for this coming Sunday (More poems for Second Sunday in Advent can be found here)
This poem was selected to accompany one of the
lectionary readings for the coming week, Isaiah 40:1-11
Ecology of Jerusalem
Yehuda Amichai
SNIPPET:
The air over Jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams
like the air over cities with heavy industry.
It’s hard to breathe.
…
Yehuda Amachai (1924-2000) was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times. Amichai was awarded the 1957 Shlonsky Prize, the 1969 Brenner Prize, 1976 Bialik Prize, and 1982 Israel Prize. He also won international poetry prizes, and was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His poetry deals with issues of day-to-day life, and philosophical issues of the meaning of life and death. His work is characterized by gentle irony and original, often surprising imagery. Like many secular Israeli poets, he struggles with religious faith. His poems are full of references to God and the religious experience. He was described as a philosopher-poet in search of a post-theological humanism. (via Wikipedia).