Makom / מקום
For Yakov
When I think of the idea of "place,"
the word that comes to mind,
more than any other,
is the Hebrew word,
"makom."
The word seems stable
and lasting, solid,
more so than others.
I don't know
why this is so.
I could explain it
linguistically
as due to the final
continuant,
but I can't explain it
emotionally.
Hebrew is not really
one of my languages
in this life,
but only a remnant
from other lives,
and yet it seems
that the word
has always been there,
solid, stable,
established,
and lasting.
I have loved
many places:
my hometown,
when I still knew it,
and the dry mountains
surrounding it.
Border Mexico,
Barcelona,
the Blue Ridge,
a beach in Brazil
that I knew only
from another life.
They all had
a certain sturdiness,
that of "makom,"
and all would appeal
to me,
and to a people
without place.
Donald Jacobson Traxler
