Poem of the Day

Start each day with a poem delivered to your inbox! Poems are selected by Poetry Foundation editors and guests to correspond with historic events, poet anniversaries, and more from the 47,000+ poem archive.

Der Gilgul (The Possessed)

By Jerome Rothenberg

1

he picks a coin up
from the ground

it burns his hand
like ashes it is red

& marks him as it marks
the others      hidden

he is hidden in the forest
in a world of nails

his dibbik fills him


2

Each night another one would hang himself. Airless boxcars.
Kaddish. "What will they do with us?" The brown & black
spots on their bellies. So many clothes. The field was littered.
Ten thousand corpses in one place. Arranged in layers. I am
moving down the field from right to left—reversing myself at
every step. The ground approaches. Money. And still his great-
est fear was that he would lose his shoes.


3

earth, growing fat with
the slime of corpses      green & pink

that ooze like treacle, turn
into a kind of tallow

that are black
at evening       that absorb

all light

Read More
A note from the editor:

Jerome Rothenberg was born on this day in 1931 and died earlier this year.

Sign Up to Receive the Poem of the Day

An asterisk (*) denotes a required field.
Email newsletters:

RECENT POEMS OF THE DAY

Poem
By Mary Jo Salter
My husband has a crush on Myrna Loy
Poem
By Karl Knights
The zoo is tough terrain; hilly
Poem
By Mona Van Duyn
I was out last night
Poem
By Arthur Sze
Coyotes surround a buck      staggering in the snow
Poem
By Diane Seuss
What kind of juke do you prefer