The Denver Jewish news., 1923-11-01
(continued from last week.)

series 'Ohn Feigenblatt Without
preston is not love emotion. as in
the other reviewed poems, but an in
stinct. an impulse. without II fg
leave are poems of sensuality. Not
pie of mysterious God perscnifying
some powerful manifestation of nature.
the poet knecls in the Temple of Eros
and sings of the mystery and power of
fascination of woman over man. He
also deplores and pities the downfall
of woman the prostitute. who sells her
livinely beautiful body for money. And
appears the image of loving mother to
guard him from further degeneration
and to console him in his bitter regrets
and establishments. =.
We approach the poems where the
author faces the world. His first re-
action is his self-exprcssion rs Il Jew.
In three poems chilled The Jew" the
poet voices the sorrow. the Thoughts and
the poems respectively. there is the
Wanderer jew. the Martyr jew. who
longs for his Messiah-the liberator,
and the Jew the message carrier. the
great teacher of love and forgiveness,
who is Messiah himself.
Allied to these poems there is the
series Hefkcr'-Outrage- i'm
prcssive pogrom poems. i would term
them u lamentation. Jeremaid. If
not for the bitter Indignation against
the so-called Christian love" which
batles its hands in Jewish blood. and
the protest against the supposed indif
ference OF the Russian radical TO the
bloody deeds of his brother" the po-
grom maker. And the bloody deeds are
pictured as strikingly by one who ex-
perienced the pogroms himself. Yes,
l.. Mates lived thru as boy the
Bialystok pogroms of 1905 and 1906.
His soul is still heavy-lnden with pain
full memories of the shame and hor-
rors of the=terriblc Hcfker days. And
prcclaims their spiritual strength and
final moral victory The prosecuted
mnrtyred Jew exclaims TO his persecu-
tors:
Cruelty me!
And know:
The martyr spirit of milleni,Ims
pulses in my veins.
The mystery of God and Godliness
| carry In my blood.
--Annihilate me you cannot -
The martyred people prOphesies the
recognition of his martyrdom by the
crucifers and their final moral re-
pcntance:
'AAnd you shall knecl. o crucifiers.
And bow Your heads TO the ground !.
You shall kiss the seam of my torn
dress
And wash The dust Of my wDnded
wander-feet."
\ remarkable group of poems in the
book is In Enem Tog''-''In That
Day" The author expresses thru
them his ideals. religion and phil
osophy. His ideal is social justice,
achieved thru love and not thru strife.
Therefore his ideal is also peace. His
God then is one of love peace and
justice. He is not forgiving God.
but niher lic Jewish Jehovah. who
Furnishes men with the very results of
their own transgressions. The author
speaks with the laundering tongue of
n prophet. proclaiming the message of
Gcd-the message of love peace and
justice. The spirit. pathos and even
form Of the poems are a Biblical
prophet. The poet speaks like IL mod
crn Issniah He sees the vision of
that day" when people will see the
new light and accept the word of
God-when the dreams. visions and
ideals of the poet-prophct will he full
filed.
In The Charity series our author
is aroused once more. this time against
the Grimes Of Charity" With consid-
cradle strength Of Indignation he pic
lures the moral tort,1rcs, the shame
and indignities, to which the victims
of charity" are subjected to: To the
poet Charity is n woman.
"WiId-eycd snake.
Who puts to Il cross-cNamination and
to shame
Tho one who knocks mt her door.
Regging for the poor beggar-broad.
Which She. with II pitiful face has col
lpc,ed.
And distributes with venom
And contempt"
In extreme opposite to the bitterness
evoked in the sensitive poet by Grimes
of Charity he radatcs with happiness