Swimming to Jerusalem  

-Howard Schwartz

The first time

I went on a quest

for forbidden fruit.

The second time

I built an ark

and tried to get there by sea.

The third time

I came in search of my ancestor,

Abraham.

If the sun was hidden

I let the stars

guide me.

If the tablets were broken

I carved

new ones.

In the future

my bones will roll there

through underground caves.

Meanwhile,

Jerusalem keeps calling me

back.

Last night

I dreamed

I was swimming there.

Dream Visit

     for Maury Schwartz

-Howard Schwartz

My uncle Maury,

now in his eighties,

comes to visit me in a dream.

He’s in his late twenties

and quite tall.

He takes a seat in my hotel room

and he’s very calm.

I am still in bed.

We chat in the dark.

He says,

“I think I need to go to the hospital.”

I say, “I’ll take you.”

He says, “No, it’s better if you call.”

Who can forget

that he drove to the hospital

with his father collapsed on his shoulder,

no longer breathing?

Once,

soon after my father died,

I dreamed that my uncle was condemned

to be hung.

After that

it would be my turn.

Now we are silent.

His calm radiates throughout the room.

I’m not sure if it’s morning or not—

the curtain next to him

is closed.

Howard Schwartz is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has published three books of poetry, Vessels, Gathering the Sparks and Sleepwalking Beneath the Stars, and several books of fiction, including The Four Who Entered Paradise and Adam’s Soul. He has also edited a four-volume set of Jewish folktales, which includes Elijah's Violin & Other Jewish Fairy Tales, Miriam's Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World, Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural and, most recently, Gabriel's Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales. He has also edited three major anthologies. Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for 1999. In addition, Schwartz has also published ten children's books, including The Diamond Tree, which won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in 1992), Next Year in Jerusalem: 3000 Years of Jewish Tales (which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society, both in 1996), A Coat for the Moon (with Barbara Rush, which won Anne Izard Storyeller’s Choice Award for 1998 and the 1999 Honor Title of the Storytelling World Awards,  and The Day the Rabbi Disappeared: Jewish Holiday Tales of Magic (which won the National Jewish Book Award and The Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society for 2000). His book Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, won the National Jewish Book Award in 2005, and his children’s book Before You Were Born won the Koret Jewish Book Award the same year. His most recent book is Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales. Schwartz lives in St. Louis with his wife Tsila, a calligrapher. He has three children, Shira, Nati and Miriam.