A habun for De’s Quadrille today at dVerse Poets Pub. A quadrille is a poem in any form of exactly 44 words using the prompted word. Today the word is “cheer”. It must be used in any form of cheer within the Quadrille. With the re-emergence of Anti-Semitism it is hard to be cheerful during this season of the Festival of Lights, Chanukah. As a Jew, I feel this deeply. This will also be posted at Real Toads Tuesday Platform. My haibun has exactly 44 words in the fashion of the first haibun created by Basho.
Public lighting of the Menorah
The Blizzard of Hate
The first candle of Hanukah is lit. Light shines in the darkness. Joy and laughter for the next few days. Anti-Semitism spreads like evil snow – a blizzard of hatred blankets the innocent.
genocide shootings –
cheer in the face of miracles
seems so far away
Berlin – anti-Semitism Rally, modern day
kanzen sakura 
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:40:26
I’m having trouble finding any empathy with cheer too.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:42:08
Which is why I wrote what I did for the word.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:44:35
There is no season of good will, but there is all year round hatred and bigotry. Keep saying it.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:49:32
Yes there and yes, I will continue to speak of it.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 16:38:34
🙂
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:44:21
Hard to click like on this… and it’s on the rise all across the world.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:47:29
Yes it is. But click like anyway. One vote against hatred! 🙂
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:48:12
I did 🙂
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:48:40
Hooray!!!!!
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Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:45:49
Heartbreaking, Toni. I will never, EVER understand hate of any kind. Know that you’re deeply loved. Happy Chanukah.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 15:46:53
shalom friend
Dec 03, 2018 @ 16:05:40
Our minds were in the same groove, Toni. You got me with /anti-Semitism spreads like evil snow/.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 16:38:52
You read mine before the edit and note. Thanks for dropping by
Cheer and lack of it are the reality of seasons. Your poem makes a profound statement
Much💜love
Dec 03, 2018 @ 17:10:09
very troubling, the photo and caption. you’d think they would have learned in Germany. i thought they had more sense these days
Dec 03, 2018 @ 17:48:07
They have not learned in many European countries, in the US, and in eastern countries. The Jews have always been resented and hated.
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Dec 03, 2018 @ 17:47:10
Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #8: Toni Spencer’s latest #quadrille #haibun for #dversepoets!
Dec 03, 2018 @ 18:00:06
I wish I could wipe violence and hatred off the face of the world .. evocative write, Toni ❤
Dec 03, 2018 @ 18:02:37
Thank you Sanaa. I think so many of us wish and pray for tbis.
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Dec 03, 2018 @ 18:27:47
I like your description of hate as a blizzard.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 19:40:45
I don’t get it, where all this antisemitism comes from. I know that Trump has made every inbred moron feel fine about expressing whatever rot-brained notions they have, but it has to be there in the first place in order to be brought out. I truly don’t understand it.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 20:00:33
Anti-Semitism never left Europe. For example, in 1299 Edward I expelled all Jews in the Edict of Expulsion. They stayed expelled until Cromwell. In 1938 Kristallnacht also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, Reichspogromnacht or simply Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians. pogroms were common in Eastern Europe and of course we all know about the good villagers who watched the Jews being marched past them into Auswitz. Here in the US we have watched the upsurge in neo Nazism and anti-Semitism in the past 20 years. In England money lending was forbidden to Christians which led to the Jews being accused of usury and blood sacrifice. Jewelry stores were brown into, synagogues were vandalize, even a few Jews were crucified in 1880-1888 in England. As long as there has been Jews there has been hate. Mainly stemming from the calling them Christ killers although the only form of execution allowed Jews is stoning. People conveniently forget the Romans killed Jesus.
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Dec 03, 2018 @ 20:40:58
We must keep the light shining in the darkness. But it is, indeed, a blizzard right now.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 20:43:13
The truly stupid among us are so bold with their stupidity. I try hard to prevent it from stirring anger and resentment within me, because if I succumb, then I have allowed them to steal my peace.
Dec 03, 2018 @ 21:37:40
“seems (so very) far away” – what happened to ‘peace on earth’?
Dec 03, 2018 @ 22:42:25
cheer in the face of miracles
seems so far away
ugh. ugh. who can cheer about this. thank you for speaking about this.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 03:37:26
Like others, brave words well said.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 08:30:40
Yes, I so agree, Toni. This year has been particularly tough. I visited the new Holocaust Memorial in Philadelphia only a couple days before the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh–and then the cheering at dt’s rallies. I know it’s world wide. . .
Dec 04, 2018 @ 09:25:50
Yes it is. It. Is scary but we have lived with it for centuries. We will survive
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Dec 04, 2018 @ 09:27:19
Yes, exactly.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 09:57:10
????
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Dec 04, 2018 @ 10:48:46
I was agreeing to the we will survive.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 12:12:16
I know.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 09:45:13
These are scary times for everyone, but especially Jews. As a fellow Jew, kanzen sakura, thank you for posting this well-written piece
Dec 04, 2018 @ 09:56:46
Blessings to you
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Dec 07, 2018 @ 08:52:32
Todah Raba!
Dec 04, 2018 @ 10:22:39
Well done Toni. Your reminder that hate never take a holiday is raw and vivid. Keep lighting the candles and celebrate the light in those lost!
Dec 04, 2018 @ 14:10:41
Ah, how can we find cheer in such an environment? It’s a hard-hitting write because it’s such a horrible world that we live in.
“a blizzard of hatred blankets the innocent”: This is so well said!
Dec 04, 2018 @ 16:28:57
This is so true but yet, there is light in the darkness, and hope as well every time we light a candle on the menorah.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 14:57:13
So well said Toni, truly.
Dec 04, 2018 @ 15:56:35
Yes, it does, Toni.
Dec 05, 2018 @ 03:19:15
How very tragic that joy and genocide must appear side by side in a poem.
Dec 05, 2018 @ 10:09:07
I won’t say I understand how this feels. However, my heart goes out to all Jews and everyone affected by the hatred in society. Your poem is beautiful in a melancholy way; it spoke to me deeply. Thank you, Toni. Have a peaceful and happy Chanukah!
Dec 05, 2018 @ 13:17:06
So important to keep raising our voices – poets are very close to the front of the line of who they’ll come for next
Dec 05, 2018 @ 16:47:44
Hi Toni. Back for another read. Came in through the “toad” door this time… all we can do perdonally is hold our moral center…
Dec 05, 2018 @ 17:13:20
That is what we Jews have been doing for centuries against hate
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Dec 05, 2018 @ 19:29:25
Mankind certainly has some faults, one of them is not allowing others to live their lives differently and find god (if they need one) their on way and vice versa. The secret is in not saying or believing other views are wrong but accepting we are different but can acknowledge others can find their own paths in life.
Dec 06, 2018 @ 17:53:34
Unfortunately we are into a long going pattern of hate
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Dec 05, 2018 @ 21:55:55
Telling it like it is, Toni, deplorable situation.
We have some friends, Baptists, who are now retired and have started their travels. They avoid Europe because their name sounds Jewish. We never discussed how much if any Jewish blood they have. I have a great-grandmother who was Jewish and married a German. Both were banished by family and so came to America. Then during WWI my great-grandfather once held off a lynch mob with ropes and lanterns with his shotgun. Later he “Americanized” our last name. People are fickle and easily persuaded to HATE.
..
Dec 05, 2018 @ 22:33:05
Yes it is
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