Daniel Klawitter
Land Of Promise
(With a nod to Rabbi Hillel, 70 B.C.E.-10 C.E.)
I have seen your sacred hills
scarred by violence, but still holy—
in the way silence can be shrill
after breathing slowly
I have learned to stand as still
as the water in Jacob's Well.
Immobile as Lot's wife—
a soul of salt thirsting for redemption.
My gentile lips speak
only with apprehension
about the ungentle.
So let speaking cease among the weary.
If it is for shalom, salaam, and peace
that we labor, then that which is hateful
do not do unto your neighbor...
the rest is commentary.
Bio
Among other things, Daniel has been an actor, a singer/lyricist for a folk-rock band, and a union organizer for mental health care workers. Currently an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, he lives in Denver, CO and since 2007 has published roughly eight poems a year in respectable literary journals, magazines, and books. He is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Runaway Muse and An Epistemology Of Flesh. Both are available for just $5 each on his Amazon.com Author's Page.