Presented here for the first time.
 

My Old Fidelities 
 

My old fidelities, 

Oh, my old fidelities have abandoned me 

Lately, as though they already observe 

My impending fade, my nearing oblivion 

Which comes sneaking toward me. 

My old fidelities, 

I revere them: a far off Mount Hermon, 

The ash of oak trees, the smoke of bonfires, 

Sweet Tea, a drink with old friends, 

Forgotten notebooks whose leaves 

Are badly torn, your arm that was 

Stretched to me at the grove with the thin 

Hair that wonders and waves 

Within the wind, the silent movie of my 

Old sights who always escape from me, 

And that heartrending pursuit, to chase 

All what was . . . and will never be again. 
 

translated from the Hebrew by the author and Ward Kelley 
 

)c( All Rights Reserved.

bio courtesy of Moongate
Elisha Porat, the 1996 winner of Israel's Prime Minister's Prize for Literature, has published 17 volumes of fiction and poetry, in Hebrew, since 1973. His works have appeared in translation in Israel, the United States, Canada and England. The English translation of his short story collection "The Messiah of LaGuardia", was released in 1997. His latest work, a book of Hebrew poetry, "The Dinosaurs of the Language", was recently published in Israel. 

Elisha Porat was born in 1938 to a "pioneer" family in Palestine-Eretz Yisrael (pre Israel); his parents were among the founders of Kibbutz Ein Hahoresh, a Kibbutz on the Sharon plates near the city of Hadera. Today Porat, devoted to the community ideal, still make his home near the original tent erected by his parents back in the early 30s. In 1956 Porat was draft into the IDF (the Israeli army) and fought in three wars: the Six Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the War of South Lebanon in 1982. 

As a lifelong member of his Kibbutz, Porat has worked many years as a farmer as well as a writer. His labors in the Kibbutz fruit orchard, perhaps contrasting his military tours of duty, have always influenced his art. Besides writing, his current endeavors include editorial duties for several literary journals. He is married with four grown children - three daughters and a son. In 1998, Porat journied out into the internet, and his growing volume of work can be readily found in many literary Ezines. His translated stories and poems have, for years, found their way into print, most recently The Boston review.