Mine, or: Not?

A haibun

Despite the fact that both of my parents were raised in the USSR, celebrating Novy God, the secular New Year holiday, which remains popular in all post-Soviet states to this day, they abandoned it forever upon moving to Israel in the mid-70’s. When I was growing up in the USA, we only celebrated the Hebrew New Year; the Gregorian New Year held no relevance to us.

My wife grew up in Russia, celebrating Novy God, and when she moved to Israel she too dropped this non-Jewish tradition. However, she retained many fond memories of Novy God celebrations with her family, all of whom remained in Russia and continued to celebrate this national holiday. Eventually, my wife started to gradually incorporate more and more elements of Novy God into our family life in Israel, and it is now a holiday that our daughter identifies with and greatly looks forward to.

Personally, I still don’t feel any strong connection to New Year’s or Novy God, but I love how happy it makes my family.

winter's dark aglow
gifts magically appear
bright smiles warm our home

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d’Verse ‘Haibun Monday’

Theme: ‘Celebration’

At d’Verse, poets were challenged to write haibuns with the theme of ‘celebration’.

Haibun?

New to Haibun? Write a paragraph or more of prose, or prose poetry, then follow it with a haiku—one that includes a season word, and juxtaposes two disparate images that, when paired, give us that “aha!” experience.

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Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!