I Ask Forgiveness
I ask forgiveness of all the poems
born misshapen because of my desire to write them
I ask forgiveness of all the people
whose lives were disrupted by my desire to influence
and of the world
for the superfluous things added to it
and those unnecessarily severed
because of my lust for symmetry
and happy endings.
I ask forgiveness of my mother
for not knowing how to love her in her misery
of my children
for the moments when I don’t want them
of my wife for every time I was too small
to contain her love.
I am lighter than a falling leaf
I am softer than grass
now a small bird could
build its nest in me.
.
by Alex Ben-Ari
from Haaretz
translation: Vivian Eden and Alex Ben-Ari