Listen.

Tonight I went to a poetry reading, featuring my dear friend Lilah Sugarman. It was at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla, and it was the culmination of a series of poetry presentations, and open mic nights. The average age of attendance was oh, I'd say, 48 or so.

Ilya Kaminsky was the featured poet of the night, and he was absolutely amazing. Lilah has told me much about him before, and had given me his book, Dancing in Odessa, but I had never had the opportunity to see him perform.

This was my favorite poem of the evening,
but reading it in your mind in no way compares to how it sounded read aloud.

Author’s Prayer

BY ILYA KAMINSKY

If I speak for the dead, I must leave
this animal of my body,

I must write the same poem over and over,
for an empty page is the white flag of their surrender.

If I speak for them, I must walk on the edge
of myself, I must live as a blind man

who runs through rooms without
touching the furniture.

Yes, I live. I can cross the streets asking “What year is it?”
I can dance in my sleep and laugh

in front of the mirror.
Even sleep is a prayer, Lord,

I will praise your madness, and
in a language not mine, speak

of music that wakes us, music
in which we move. For whatever I say

is a kind of petition, and the darkest
days must I praise.