Magical Trains / Strange Fire: A Collection of Old and New Poems

By Gabriel Emanuel

Don’t settle
not for buses or hostages
north winds or no names
demand shower heads in slum baths
drink not from the bottle
but from the glass
let warm food be hot
throw back the cat fish
take off your rubber
reject electronic tranquilizers
and lovers who just want to be friends
satisfied like vice-presidents
or dead tax payers
waiting for a refund.
—From "Don't Settle" (Magical Trains)

Magical Trains/Strange Fire is a collection of poems written by the author since he first started writing poetry at the age of eighteen. This is a selection of some of the poems that have survived the elements and the years. The poems are on a variety of topics but mostly they are about matters of the heart.

Gabriel Emanuel is a Canadian born writer and lawyer (Canada/Israel) and the author of two published stage plays "Children of Night", set in a Jewish orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto, and "Einstein", a one man play about the famous physicist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strange Fire Publications
• Release date: Mar 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9780993696718

Book preview

MAGICAL

TRAINS/STRANGE

FIRE

A COLLECTION OF OLD

AND NEW POEMS

GABRIEL EMANUEL

Copyright © 2016 Gabriel Emanuel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-0-9936-9670-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-9936-9671-8 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

rev. date: 03/04/2016

CONTENTS

Magical Trains

As Flies Purify the Air

I Refuse to Donate My Organs to Science

What Is It About My Luck?

First Letter to Columbus from New York City, June, 1980

It Has Been a Long Season

In the Song of Songs

Straight Haiku

Odius Black Box

Because I Would Do Your Bidding

You Wear Those Monkey Glasses

God Loves His Mysteries

Bob Dylan Was My Last Idol

I Have Known You These Three Lives

Don’t Settle

The Trouble With This Love Is

The Method of Politeness is to Keep Moving

They are Going to Call Me to the Bar

Einstein’s Brain

Why Do We Want to Know All

I Was Warned About the Beggars

They Told Stories About You

Second Letter to Columbus From West Hawk Lake

This Northern Woman that I Love

Still Got My Health

I Left My Window Open

Valediction Forbidding Canoeing

The Jews’ Chant

The Passover Chant

M.

Western Haiku

Allie

The man with the photographs would not lie

I saw the glazed eyes of the hostage

Why does Arafat wear sunglasses

Got to have the Will (to survive)

It rained all night

The last time we made love

Sealed in a raincoat

If I audition for your army, Major

The last poem in the world

Strange Fire

Love rides in on a horse