(1)   Trial by Verse

Here's an example  -

Crisis in Court

Horror!  Counsel's dropped his book,

Waking everyone in Court.

Without this volume, counsel must

Rely on unaccustomed thought.

Counsel's caseless  -  counsel's lost.

Yet this shattering event

Can't be without precedent?

The usher rises from his nook,

With a condescending look  -

Picks the volume up again.

Silence is audible; and then

Counsel with a frown condign

Turns the page and seeks the line

To support his argument.

Thus another crisis passes  -

Horror!  Counsel's dropped his glasses...

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            Comic and satiric verse about the law, its makers and practitioners, it was published by Barry Rose, one of the leading Law Publishers in England.  His Honour Judge Israel Finestein QC commented that he read this book “with interest, amusement and benefit.” It was also given a favourable reading by several Judges of the Supreme Court, and reviewed with approval in The Jewish Chronicle.  The author was interviewed about it, and read extracts, on Three Counties Radio.

            Copies may be obtained from Hammicks Legal Bookshop, 191-192 Fleet Street, London (tel. 0207-405-3554) or ordered on-line from fleets@hammicks.co.uk,

or from www.amazon.co.uk, Foyles, Borders, Waterstone’s, Blackwell’s, Ottakar’s and others.

(2)   The Jewish Pilgrimage: An Exploration of Reality, Mainly in Verse

One example  -

An Answer to Fanatics

Except in the enforced defence

Of freedom, life, or innocence,

Whoever lifts the sword

Defies the Lord.

To fight for God is an offence:

The father-sin of violence.

Whoever kills in Heaven's name

Is Heaven's shame.

One cannot make God's glory more

By disobeying Heaven's law;

Nor violence at any price

Buy the way to Paradise.

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Other extracts are quoted in Reviews.

The book is in two parts.  The first is philosophical verse, entitled “The Moral Genesis.”  This has two meanings, referring on the one hand to the nature of right and wrong, and on the other hand to why God (if He exists) could be justified in creating a universe where suffering is inevitable.  Its purpose was to argue out certain ideas for consideration.  It is a form of poetry that might be called “the poetry of ideas” as distinct from traditional descriptive or narrative verse, because it explores problems and sets out conjectures.  Inevitably it will be controversial.  It is in poetry, because the author finds that a natural way to think!  The second part of the book consists of individual poems, and one or two short pieces in prose, about Jewish history, Israel, etc.

             Copies may be obtained on-line from www.amazon.co.uk or from such leading booksellers as Foyles, Borders, Waterstone’s and Ottakar’s; in America from

<a href="http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/index.htm"> Purchase my book online at PublishAmerica.com</a>

or world-wide from www.amazon.com.

(3)   Steps into Poetry:  Nonsense and other Verse for Children 

One sample  -

Crazy Lazy Daisy

Crazy Lazy Daisy

And her little sister Maisie

Were feeling rather hazy

About who and what they were.

Were they rabbits with bad habits

Who would only eat Welsh rarebits

And would never leave the spare bits

For the pussy-cats that purr?

Were they pussy-cats themselves?

Were they pixies?  Were they elves?

Fairies sitting upon shelves,

Wrapped in robes of velvet fur?

One morning they woke up in bed

And turned a richly ruby red:

They were not what they thought they were,

But something else instead.

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            The verse in this book is designed to catch the minds of children and spark interest in rhythm and language.  They have always preferred rhythm both in words and music to a bald story.  Very small children also like nonsense being read to them by an adult; and older children may feel a sense of achievement as they grow to understand and appreciate poems that do not treat them as idiots but come more and more to appeal to their developing minds.  In addition, teachers should appreciate a book that encourages children to read poetry, particularly if, like the verse in this book, it starts in simple terms and goes on to become deeper in words and ideas.

Copies may be ordered from www.amazon.co.uk, Foyles, Borders,

Waterstone’s, Blackwell’s, Ottakar’s and others; in America from