Monday, December 10, 2007

Chanukah Lights Tonight: A Poem

I didn’t post for Poetry Friday at Wild Rose Reader or Blue Rose Girls last week. I just found the following poem and thought it would be perfect to post today as the end of Hanukkah draws near.


Chanukah Lights Tonight
by Steven Schneider

Our annual prairie Chanukah party—
latkes, kugel, cherry blintzes.
Friends arrive from nearby towns
and dance the twist to "Chanukah Lights Tonight,"
spin like a dreidel to a klezmer hit.

The candles flicker in the window.
Outside, ponderosa pines are tied in red bows.
If you squint,
the neighbors' Christmas lights
look like the Omaha skyline.

The smell of oil is in the air.

You can read the rest of the poem at American Life in Poetry: Column 140.

American Life in Poetry is a project for newspapers by Ted Kooser, a former Poet Laureate of the United States (2004-2006), and is made possible by The Poetry Foundation.

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