Daily April poem: riffing off of a famous phrase

ETHICS OF THE MOTHERS

 

Ben Zoma said:

Who is wise?

One who learns from everyone,

as it is written: from all of my teachers

I gained understanding.

Who is happy?

One in pyjamas watching cartoons;

one who rejoices in the combination

of puddles and rain boots;

in trains of any dimension.

Who is frustrated?

One who yearns for a cookie

upon waking to the dawn

even though it is known

cookies are not a breakfast food.

Who is fortunate?

One who says thank you

for the trees, for the cars,

for the new Spiderman undies,

for the moon.

 

 

This poem grew out of a NaPoWriMo prompt which invited us to take the first few words of a famous saying, plug them into a search engine, and make a poem with what we found there. It's traditional to study Pirkei Avot -- "The Ethics of the Fathers," a compilation of rabbinic wisdom -- during the Counting the Omer, so I thought of the saying from Pirkei Avot (chapter 4, mishna 1) "Who is wise? One who learns from everyone, as it is written: from all who taught me, I gained understanding."

Anyway: today's poem arose out of that bit of Pirkei Avot. The first stanza is a direct quote from Ben Zoma; the other stanzas are my own invention. Consider it a fragment of Pirkei Imahot, the Ethics of the Mothers.