Brandeis Magazine

David Ball writes, “Good and bad: Though I long to see our children and grandchildren in San Francisco, we’ll be stuck in Northampton, Massachusetts, until plane travel is safe again. True, there are worse places to be stuck in. ‘Stuck’ is still the word. But I was pleased to see “Coma Crossing: Collected Poems,” by Roger Gilbert-Lecomte come out; I translated, introduced and annotated it. It was fun to work on a wild, young surrealist poet (officially expelled from surrealism) with a small underground press, after working with the echt-academic Oxford University Press for my last two books.” Stephen Berger reports on life during what he calls “a strange, unsettling and, at moments, frightening year”: “After going to an office for 60 years, I now find myself living in a two-dimensional Zoom world. The absence of social interaction flattens daily experience. My only ‘useful’ contribution has been a published article on New York’s future responses to this kind of crisis. I am on the Metropolitan Opera board but have no idea when I will see live opera again. This life smells of retirement, which I now know I will absolutely abhor. And, being a Marcuse/Maslow-trained Brandeisian, I can’t help wondering what the world will be like if we can’t develop a vaccine. Be well. Stay safe.” Sylvia Ford-Zippor has lived in Jerusalem since 2008. She studies Yiddish and Hebrew short stories, knits and crochets, writes stories in English, and enjoys sightseeing. Contact her at sylvia­dvoraz@gmail.com. Shepard Forman writes, “Unable to make our annual pilgrimage to the farm in western Massachusetts (the first summer and fall in 38 years we won’t be there), Leona and I remain in privileged quarantine in our retirement home in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is second only to the United States in infamy for its mismanagement of this crisis, with a president who mimics ours at every turn. We have been in lockdown since March 14, just after spending my 82nd birthday with our daughter and granddaughter who live nearby but whom we have not seen since. Like so many of you know, missing hugs from the kids and grandkids is the hardest part, but regular WhatsApp calls help enormously, as does a weekly Zoom call during which we discuss memories of important moments in our lives together. We move forward, deeply concerned as we watch the crisis unfold around us but in good spirits, with health and hope still driving us.” Bruce Gordon is retired and living in his country home in Rhinebeck, New York. “I have become a gardener over the past 14 years,” he reports. “My partner and I work dutifully in our beautiful flower gardens and a large vegetable garden, although we cut back this year and have only 35 tomato plants in addition to lots of other plants. Soon it will be time to freeze all kinds of things for winter use. Anyone visiting this area is welcome to visit. Just give me a call, come with a mask, and we can reconstruct some wonderful memories.” Letty Cottin Pogrebin is working on her 12th book, “Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy.” While sheltering in the Berkshires, she’s been curating an almost-weekly newsletter focused on news, culture and humor from a progressive-feminist perspective, with an emphasis on U.S. politics and developments in Israel-Palestine. Friends are welcome to subscribe free at tinyletter.com/lettycp/subscribe.