I LISTENED OVER AND OVER AGAIN/TO THE POEMS I LOVE

I listened over and over again
To the poems I love
Poems I have known for many years
I heard them in myself
Missing a word here and there
Forgetting a line and wondering where Memory had gone-

I listened over and over again
To the poems I loved so much
Some I knew by heart
Many I knew many lines of-

Were they mine really?
Did they shape my soul?

Why did I love them so much?

The poems of others
Recited again and again
Within myself

Old friends
Who will still be here
After I have gone

Old friends
Who have given me so much.

Shalom Freedman

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