On my last day in Tel Aviv, I managed to do something I hadn’t done since my mom’s funeral really – I wrote. In the last couple months I’ve had good concepts for poems, songs, etc. but just hadn’t been able to put anything down on paper. I’d have to look back but I really think the last piece I wrote was the poem for my mom’s funeral.

I wasn’t worried that I’d lost the ‘ability’ to write but knew it was important to just get something down on paper to get over that ‘hump’ as it might be called. Since I have a book contract now, it was doubly important. I’ve always liked writing in Tel Aviv. I think because there is a lot of creativity influences around. Oddly, I sorta felt that way in France too but never really had a good opportunity to dig into something there.

My last day in Tel Aviv was pretty long in that I had to check out of my hotel at noon. I went to a museum then saw a movie. My friends were taking me out later in the evening before going to the airport at like 2 a.m. I had a couple spare hours in the evening so sitting at a cafe called movieing.com (great chips by the way) and over a glass of Spanish wine I wrote the following poem. It’s not great but doesn’t suck either.

Leaving Tel Aviv

Here I sit, about to say goodbye

The right words escape me

The parting moment suspended in motion.

 

Do I say I love you?

Like two estranged lovers who can’t let go?

Heartfelt it may be but I still leave.

 

The tides of the hustling bustle city hold

Delusions of a world where I don’t erode

As though my thoughts – words – can withstand the current.

 

The ghosts that haunt this place

Assure me my time will surely come

When everyman’s destiny meets me face to face.

 

Leaving Tel Aviv not so easy even as the plane whisks me away

I may caress another

But secretly who can take your place?