First Draft of a Poem

So I don't write poetry very often, and this is very much a first draft of something I've been thinking about for a while, but I'd appreciate your feedback as I think this has some potential if it were developed a bit.

Morning Confession

I eat pomegranates for breakfast.
And sometimes I yearn for the substance of
A slice of bread – its firmness and fullness
Familiarity, convenience, tidiness
Next to a cup of instant coffee
But instead

I slice into the pomegranate with my knife
And pry apart the insides with my hand
Prodding at the white fibers and
Pulling forth the beads of fruit
Pushing them between my lips
And crunching, devouring

I say that this connects me to the land
To the seasons – I eat what is
Growing here, now.
But I don’t know the land
And I don’t know the seasons
Although, at least, I do eat pomegranates
For breakfast.
From inside my apartment
I imagine myself a part of this vital world
And I cut into the land’s heart-shaped child
Grinding the seeds between my
Coffee-stained teeth

The environment is a cause for which
I enter my credit card number online
Donating chai for the source of all life
And closing my computer to shut it away
The environment is large and far away
It is a stranger whom I pity
An abstraction grounded only in the sky

But the round globe of the pomegranate
Feels firm in the palm of my hands
Flushed pink as I enter it with
My sticky fingers, plucking the
Pinkish blood and white, firm body
From a corpse splayed wide across my plate
A silenced heart upon a hospital bed

I drop the last teardrop-shaped seed
Into my cavernous mouth
The rind is empty, shredded
Its secrets revealed, it holds no more
And I throw the carcass in the trashcan
Close the lid, and
Walk away.

Enabling Jews in the Former Soviet Union to Celebrate Passover

This Passover, Daniel and I will be participating in an exciting project that will strengthen Jewish identity in the Former Soviet Union. This April, we will be traveling, along with twenty-five rabbinical, cantorial, and education students from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), to the Former Soviet Union (FSU).

In partnership with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, which unites and supports Reform congregations worldwide, we are happy to announce our Seventh Annual FSU Pesach Project. The mission of our trip is to provide meaningful Passover celebrations for thousands of underserved Jews in the region.

While there has been an abundance of Jewish philanthropy and development in the FSU since the 1990s, there are still only six progressive rabbis to serve over one hundred Jewish communities during Passover. Our student delegations will be traveling to more than twenty communities throughout Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in order to lead Passover seders, conduct educational programming, create relationships with Jews of all ages, and strengthen the Jewish identity of these diverse communities.

The cost of participation for each delegate is $2,000, which includes: travel expenses, educational materials, Passover supplies for all the participants, as well as, donations to each community, which will enable them to continue observing Passover in the years to come. Supporting this project is an important way to recognize the profound importance of celebrating the Jewish story of liberation in a
place where freedom from oppression is a very real, and recent, experience. Any amount you can contribute will make a huge difference in offsetting the costs of participation.

Tax-deductible donations* can be made online or via USPS:

• Online: www.pesachproject.com. Be sure to mark my name in the "Comments"
• By mail: HUC-JIR / Attn: Diane Bongard / 3101 Clifton Avenue / Cincinnati, OH 45220. Mark "FSU Pesach Project" along with one of our names in the memo line.

If you have any questions regarding this exciting project, please comment or e-mail us at Jessica.Kirzner@gmail.com and Daniel.A.Crane@gmail.com.