How do I pull myself out of this spiral?
How does my even keel get restored?
How do I put myself back on the path
That I was following before?
How do I prevent the evil from winning?
How do I find a way to survive?
How do I live for tomorrow as if there’s no tomorrow?
How do I celebrate being alive?
These are the questions that I face
Trying to regain my sense of place
Realizing that but for the grace
Of G-d, there go I.
How do I find a sense of peace
While we brace for a long war?
How do I find a sense of security
When things can’t be the same anymore?
How do I not succumb to the depression
When all I escaped comes crashing in?
How do I protect my children
From a future that looks increasingly grim?
These are the questions that I face ...
How do I face the ones I love
With all these questions weighing on my mind?
How do I go about my life unaffected
By this influence of the worst kind?
How do I restore my sense of vision
Untainted by this poisonous hate?
How do I return to the love and laughter
When the barbarians are at the gate?
These are the questions that I face ...
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
This was written in the wake of 9-11, and when the 'second intifada' against Israel still raged. It expresses the sense of angst that I faced as a creative person and a family man, trying to go about my business with the dark clouds of death and destruction never far from my mind. Never set to music or performed.