Category Archives: Uncategorized

La Tomate

Posted on July 13, 2026 by jillbpearlman

The French vendeur who hands me the tomato in its perfect flesh— he knows.  Some worlds haven’t been destroyed. It is a globe of seeds, juice and pulp that asserts itself, a repository of what we were given in the love … Continue reading →

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Yetzirah, ROTC & Jesus Camp

Posted on June 22, 2026 by jillbpearlman

World collide all the time.  This past weekend, it was Jewish poets at the Yetzirah Poetry Conference in the Blue Ridge Mountains doing their poetry hootenanny alongside hundreds of ROTC kids shouting theirs. It was Jesus Freak! JC rocks!, a Christian … Continue reading →

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Weather Is Us

Posted on June 8, 2026 by jillbpearlman

The weather has a nakedness that resembles ours.  It spits, it blows croons blusters and mourns. It is impetuous and adolescent, taking pleasure in small revolts and impunities. It also brings happiness, but this is not the norm.  We’re tempted to … Continue reading →

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Anguish is like Laundry

Posted on June 1, 2026 by jillbpearlman

My anguish can be washed in warm water, with a mild soap, when it’s soaked then rolled in an old towel lay it out in the dappled sun, beside lilies of the valley where it can hear the tinkling of … Continue reading →

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Savage Truths of 7am

Posted on May 25, 2026 by jillbpearlman

I am not being dishonest when I say I don’t like waking up at 6am.  It makes me negative. I hear stories of high-achieving friends waking at sunbreak to write, to lift weights at the gym …different species.  It’s only the leaking … Continue reading →

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Wedding Miracles

Posted on May 18, 2026 by jillbpearlman

What I loved — besides the volumesof taffeta on the Korean mother’s dress,  And the fleshy glow of the slightlyolder bride, And the plodding priest with hisfifty mentions of Christ,  And the guests, as various as petals on all the bouquets, With … Continue reading →

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Diaspora of Affections

Posted on May 11, 2026 by jillbpearlman

Since nothing is ever complete, the poetry book I wrote about my mother, Diaspora of Things, seems like a light-sensitive print of where I was a few years ago.  The relationship keeps evolving.  The deeper I get into motherhood – all these years … Continue reading →

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Spleen-y Ode to Spring

Posted on May 3, 2026 by jillbpearlman

Imagine wasting spring days jaundiced, brooding, noting how magnolia petals from tree nuptials became fulsome brown slurry, mucilaginous, underfoot slippery  And all Americans, scout-like, ready at any moment, have cars built to transport a casket—their neighbor, the sudden hearse of their president And when … Continue reading →

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Healing according to our Sages, the Grass

Posted on April 19, 2026 by jillbpearlman

My rebbe was quoting his rebbewho was quoting the Grass: Grass: The vitality pushing through usis stupendous. The green appearsfrom monochrome, from the shadeinto a shadeless shameless glow.Every blade is singing from the forceof its lit universe. Psychedelic!  No trade-offs, no … Continue reading →

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Good Friday according to Delacroix

Posted on April 3, 2026 by jillbpearlman

Delacroix liked to paint on SundaysA dabbling Sunday painter he was not He never shied from dramaHe was overwrought His Mary is the crossHis Christ an afterthought

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