And so I Must Imagine

By NINA FREEDLANDER GIBANS

And So I must Imagine is about my sense of place and family heritage, my city as I reflect on its past, present and future. Families and friends, homes and second homes, and cities where one has lived most of a lifetime draw ones unique lifelines. I lengthen my lifelines everyday.

[A Poem from the book] Letters There is something about opening an envelope from a friend written in hand stained with a raindrop slipped through the door so the dog will not run out barking and leaping.

I sit at the table to read and reread. I know the handwriting read what I want to hear say what I think to myself, and put it in my drawer to season.

I will discover new words tell you about friends who have missed you give you that recipe I said I would send plan as if tomorrow were yesterday and you lived around the corner. I will pick up the pieces that made us friends and dust them off, gently.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 27, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462835782

NINA FREEDLANDER GIBANS

A well-known arts advocate, author and teacher, Nina Freedlander Gibans has written poetry since college, read in San Francisco during the Beat era (once on the same stage as Allen Ginsberg) and now in the Cleveland area where she lives. She has participated in readings at the Akron and Cleveland Museums of Art, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, area bookstores and the Shaker Heights Public Library. She was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Artists Project grant for poetry in 1999 to develop 18 Gardens and their Gardeners with photographer Michael Loderstedt. “Silver Apples of the Moon”, a program she directed whereby the public was invited to match art and poetry involved libraries and museums resulted in a publication produced by the Shaker Heights Public Library and Cleveland State University (2006). She has authored four other books on cultural subjects. ). She has authored four other books on cultural subjects and co-edited Cleveland Poetry Scenes: Panorama and Anthology, (Bottom Dog Press 2008). She developed a website for regional poetry www.clevelandpoetryarchive.com. Through her advocacy efforts, West 2nd Street was renamed Daniel’s Way, for Daniel Thompson, Poet Laureate, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, who died in May 2004.[For more see www.ninagibans.com]

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Copyright © 2009 by Nina Freedlander Gibans.

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60998

Contents

PROLOGUE

AND SO I MUST IMAGINE

THE TRUNK

BEFORE

THE JOURNALS 1869-1882

100 YEARS

My Place

THE BRIDGES THAT

HART CRANE LEFT

My City Now

STORIES IN THE STREETS

My Collectibles

COVER LETTER FOR

FAMILY ARCHIVES

150 YEARS OF FACES

REUNIONS

COLLECTING

THERE WE ARE

TRACING INHERITANCE

MEMORY

BORROWING

LETTERS

THIS HOUSE IS FULL

YESTERDAY

TANGO

Second Homes

AT THE MUSEUM

WISHING WELL

CELLOS

BUTTERFLIES

MATISSE

A PICASSO OF MYSELF

OLD STATUE

LOT’S WIFE

REVISITING THE MUSEUM

Erie Days

EDGES

SQUEEZING MOONLIGHT

THE LAKE PEOPLE

ERIE DAYS

SUCKING IN SUMMER

MIST INTO MIRROR

MIST

MIRROR

WHISTLER’S DAY

GREY

GREY LAKE ERIE

CELERY SOUP

Turning the Corner

AROUND THE CORNER

A WEEKEND WITH FRIENDS

WARNINGS

COOL COLOR WHITE

APPENDIX

PROLOGUE

AND SO I MUST IMAGINE

We are tethered to our past

But our future can be songful

If we can find the voice to sing.

And so I must imagine what it was like

To come here 120 years ago

My family preparing

Preparing in Yiddish

Preparing for a journey

To a new life

In a new country.

Peace

Held in a handshake

And hug

Blue skies,

A chuppa of love.

THE TRUNK

My grandmother wove the memories

Into the shawl

The stars into the blankets for the old horse

For the ship

For the cart, for the bed

Reminders of hope

For the family to be

For the new horse in the new country.

The trunk tied with straps from the old leather-maker

Holds little else

Only

Things they could remember

Easily, fondly.

Memories for mothers and fathers

Stories for the children

The old country, the new country

The children ask questions

On the way to language, on the way to learning

On the way to understanding.

My father, the sixth one born here can only reflect

Me too.

BEFORE

60998-GIBA-layout.pdf

THE JOURNALS 1869-1882

the remaining stories

David the grandfather

22 June1869

I.

We will take the Torah with us

It will be heavy

It