%
% The Western Wall
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% Reuben Thomas
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% Typeset 17/12/00; used my poem package 21/12/00; made HeVeA-friendly
% 11/2/02
%


\documentclass[english]{article}
\usepackage{a4,babel,palatino}
\usepackage[nonotes]{poem}

\pagestyle{empty}


\begin{document}
\begin{poem}
\title{The Western Wall}
\stanza*
We wander down the narrow covered streets \\
Of gaudy booths, a ragged raucous shawl; \\
File through the checkpoint where guards search our bags, \\
Emerge on the broad stair down to the wall. \\

\stanza*
Vast screen of stone, second foundation sure, \\
Trees growing from the cracks as well as prayers; \\
Thick ranks of brown-clad women to the right, \\
To left, scattered men, books on tables, chairs. \\

\stanza*
I take a paper cap and pass the fence, \\
Through suppliants towards the wall I drift: \\
Some tallith over T-shirt shows at prayer, \\
In stiff black Hassidim their hands uplift. \\

\stanza*
They read and sway, hunch still and mutter low, \\
Or sit and mutely gaze, brushing their knees; \\
Soft mortar of petitions points the stone, \\
Silent cacophony of pious pleas. \\

\stanza*
At the far left, a gate enters a vault; \\
The wall now lines a library of praise: \\
Plain shelves, ornate armoires hold holy texts, \\
God's name, that only time's hand may erase. \\

\stanza*
Retreating, we ascend, until the wall \\
Is but the basis of a wider scene; \\
The gleaming Dome on high, the hidden grave, \\
Mingle their warring wails in prayer serene. \\

\author{Reuben Thomas}
\poemdate{19th September--17th December 2000; revised 9th May 2018}
\end{poem}
\begin{notes}
  The ``wailing wall'' is the western foundation wall of Herod the
  Great's second Temple. The base is divided into a men's section and
  a women's section. The pious often write their petitions on pieces
  of paper and push them into the interstices of the wall; the Pope
  did so in the early 1990s. It is forbidden for Jews to destroy the
  written name of God. On top of the Temple mount now is the Dome of
  the Rock; the ``hidden grave'' is the subterranean Church of the
  Holy Sepulchre.

  The day after we left Israel, the then Foreign Minister and leader
  of the right-wing Likud Party, Ariel Sharon, visited the Wall and
  sparked off yet another round of bloody conflict between the
  Palestinian Arabs and the Israelis.
\end{notes}
\end{document}
