by Esther Cameron (January 2026)
—————–let us be true
——to one another
————————Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”
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We do not have much trust in one another
So must rely on those whose calculations
We can predict, as we predict the weather,
The course of falling rocks, or the rotations
Of stars and planets. So with them we make
A world where we can find a den or perch
Secure and firm, save when, by some mistake,
Foundations shift and leave us in the lurch.
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Yet times have been (we think we can recall)
When on the scattered shone a sacred vision
And pledging “All for one and one for all”
They rose to act, holding beyond division
To what was truest in both self and friend,
Trusting in that, whatever fate might send.
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Table of Contents
Esther Cameron is a dual citizen of Israel and the US, now living in Jerusalem. She is the founding editor of The Deronda Review. Her poems and essays have appeared here and there; she has published her Collected Works on Amazon and has had one book published by an academic press—Western Art and Jewish Presence in the Work of Paul Celan (Lexington Books, 2014).
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
