“Do not regret/ (as she regretted)/ never learning the words// of the old country/ her mother tongue./ Do not forget// a tongue is not a mother/ an acorn is not a tree.”
In a magnificent gesture near the poem’s close, Dina turns again to arboreal imagery, moving toward hope. Her daughter is named for a tree whose buds stretch toward the sun. The darkness remains, but life endures, reaching for light. What is inherited is not only trauma, but also resilience, renewal, and the possibility of growth and recovery in the next generation.
Read “Do Not Regret” in Synkroniciti’s Dignity, Vol. 8, No. 3, available for $7 here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
D. Dina Friedman has published in many literary journals, including Salamander, Rattle, The Sun, MassPoetry, Chautauqua Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Cider Press Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Cold Mountain Review, Lilith, Negative Capability and Rhino, and received four Pushcart Prize nominations. She is the author of two books of poetry, Here in Sanctuary, Whirling (Querencia Press) and Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press). Dina’s fiction includes the short-story collection Immigrants (Creators Press) and two YA novels, Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad ‘s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux).