Yehoshua November
Yehoshua November is the author of the poetry collections Two Worlds Exist, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and God’s Optimism, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Two of his siblings are poets as well — a source of pride and confusion for the entire family. He lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.
— From July 2021The Buttonhook
My son sprinted to each traffic light / in his black hat and dark Sabbath suit / while the elderly congregation two miles away / waited for him to help lead morning prayers.
July 2021Selected Poems
— from “Falling From The Sky” | When we found out our daughter had gone deaf, / I did not question God’s fairness
October 2018The Soul In A Body
is like an old Russian immigrant / looking out his apartment’s only window.
August 2016Between Lifetimes
But love is a rusting machine / you call to have serviced over and over again, / hoping the pieces won’t have to be replaced. Again and again / you apply the grease until the engine inches forward.
December 2013At The Request Of The Organization For Jewish Prisoners
Three bearded rabbinical students in a rented car, / trunk filled with menorah kits and grape-juice bottles, / we pulled away from the all-male yeshiva in New Jersey / and headed west, into the heart of Pennsylvania, to celebrate / Chanukah with the Jewish inmates of Allenwood’s many prisons.
July 2013