…Out of the Darkness
© 2016 Cora Schwartz, Ukraine “I took this picture because it spoke to me about being able to leave darkness behind and move toward the light even if one is alone.“
Fisherman Father
(dedicated to my father, a child victim of a polio epidemic) I feel your shame As you swing your bum leg Over the edge of the rocking dingy. I hear the thud When you settle down hard On the salt-weary bench. But I see your pride When you grip those oars Looking like everyone else […]
But In the Morning
(dedicated to the troubled women I worked with in a shelter) Tonight When he staggers home She will kill him Erase him from that page in her life And start to hope again. Blood Crimson as those autumn birch leaves Will drop from her knife Falling at last into empty eyes In the velvet night. […]
An Excerpt from Loving a Holocaust Survivor
An Excerpt from: GYPSY TEARS, LOVING A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR A book by Cora Schwartz Chapter 1 Rudy insisted on calling our rented basement apartment his bunker even though I complained it was depressing me. Except for the little, ground-level window over our bed, we were cut off from the outside world. He said […]
On Being Cherry – Circa 1957
After being stood up on my first real date I didn’t think much about boys until Terry, the fast girl in our clique announced her brother was home from the Navy. Terry lived in an apartment on Morris Avenue with just her father. She was the only one in our group of fifteen year-olds who […]
Autumn Morning
Outside my window A leaf journeys to a certain death Embraces a resting drop of dew That glistens in the morning sun To remind me you are here.
Living A Basement Life
We are amazed by the glimmers of life and beauty But mostly the sadness that manages to reach us in our basements. Who can ignore that slow, sad whistle of the morning walker Or disregard our memories from long ago. They all come with each incessant pearl of rain That knocks without remorse Against our […]
Day Before Yom Kippur – Oct. 6, 2002
I wrap this Yahrzeit candle In a wool sock. This time you will have safe transport. Yes, I must pack and get on with life But never , not even once, will I forget you.