The following sonnet was written during the Pillar of Defense operation in Israel and was sent to a number of other poets, several of whom responded with their own poems. The collection is posted on the website of The Deronda Review under the title ‘Our Prayers for Israel.’  With the permission of the authors we will post other poems from this collection, which vividly brings home the situation which the Israelis face today.

For Our Friends in Israel

By Esther Cameron

In lands not ours, at morning comes your night

With whistling shells and clamorous sirens’ blare.

We listen through our days and strain in prayer

Sending what strength we have to make more tight

The dual screen of merit and of might,

Of man’s precaution and G-d’s loving care—

Must not our wills, conjoined, give off a flare

To put the plague of hate to final flight?

If you have thought to spare, pray for us too,

Pray for each spark of spirit scattered far

And yet no less at risk, no less at war,

And in our separate strife sustained by you—

May G-d send us the surge that could unite

Against this darkness all our scattered light!