The Amen Stone

On my desk there is a stone with the word “Amen” on it,
a triangular fragment of stone from a Jewish graveyard destroyed
many generations ago. The other fragments, hundreds upon hundreds,
were scattered helter-skelter, and a great yearning,
a longing without end, fills them all:
first name in search of family name, date of death seeks
dead man’s birthplace, son’s name wishes to locate
name of father, date of birth seeks reunion with soul
that wishes to rest in peace. And until they have found
one another, they will not find a perfect rest.
Only this stone lies calmly on my desk and says “Amen.”
But now the fragments are gathered up in lovingkindness
by a sad good man. He cleanses them of every blemish,
photographs them one by one, arranges them on the floor
in the great hall, makes each gravestone whole again,
one again: fragment to fragment,
like the resurrection of the dead, a mosaic,
a jigsaw puzzle. Child’s play.

Yehuda Amichai is an Israeli philosopher-poet who has been shortlisted numerous times to receive the Nobel Literature Prize. Taken from his book "Open Closed Open", Amichai spends a great deal of time talking about the human condition and in this poem, talks about how senseless killing tears people apart. A holocaust survivor himself, Amichai uses this poem as a way to showcase how through patience, kindness and acceptance, we can bring about peace for what we've lost.

Sources:
Amichai, Yehuda. “The Amen Stone by Yehuda Amichai.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52940/the-amen-stone.
Bhatt, Jenny. “Weekend Poem: The Amen Stone by Yehuda Amichai.” Indiatopia, 14 Dec. 2013, https://indiatopia.com/2013/12/14/weekend-poem-amen-stone-yehuda-amichai/.