Ken Rosenstein
The Metamorphosis of Memories and Words
I remember picking dandelions - the teeth of lions hard and glowing in the sun with my sister. We put the flowers in a carriage. I remember sitting in a carriage with a little green cap on my head - 4 years old. I remember falling backwards hurtling through an infinity of space - only a few feet down stone steps. I remember crying. I don't remember the aftermath before discovering the bandage on my head.
I remember my father coming home from work sporting a grey wool Russian cap on his head. I remember asking if I could wear his clothes when I grew up having to content myself with a Paisley clip on bow tie. I remember learning how to tie my first silk Paisley bow tie in the Boston Brooks Brothers store. I don't remember when I learned to tie a regular tie knots of complications cloth weaving in and out warp and woof until the resolution is complete. I don't remember when the relationship with my sister unraveled sometime after a long time after we had first picked those yellow dandelions together - working in concert. I don't remember when I attended my first concert. I do remember listening to Peter and the Wolf watching Leonard Bernstein (of whom I would later write) conducting his Young People's Concerts for Children arms waving in the air conducting currents of sound coursing through the universe wafting through the air alighting on yellow dandelions destined to be picked by innocent children on sunlit days in the field of light and shadow.
Ken Rosenstein has written poems on various aspects of Judaism for over 20 years. For over 30 years he has been active in the Jewish Renewal Movement, and is a student in the Jewish Renewal ALEPH Rabbinic Program.
