Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

Charles van Heck

  • Advent and Chanukkah: Lights in the Darkness

    A curtain of silence drapes the late autumn and first days of winter. There is a sense of expectation. In the solitude of quiet nights, I find hope and the desire for renewal and deepening of faith in the flickering… Continue reading

  • A Poem; Memory and Loss

    (For Diane and Judy) There is something I forgot;A name, though I still knowMost faces or perhaps a word.I misplace faces, names and wordsPronounced until they vanish, Disappearing in caverns…There are many empty, dark places.Do you remember that early SeptemberBy… Continue reading

  • Advent: Aging and the Gift that Matters

    The shops were holiday decorated in October. Then the ads flourished like Wild Parsnip. By mid-November, as if exposed to the weed’s sap, I had a severe skin reaction (photodermatitis) that worsened as the month waned. Black Friday. Cyber-Monday. Buy,… Continue reading

  • Advent

    All nights become silent and holy,Laved in the candlelight of our prayers,As muted songs of lamentation are sung,Rising as incense in autumn nights’ air.In this place of our lonely exile,Anticipation rises again in our breastsFor a child, to be born… Continue reading

  • Poem for Li Qingzhao

    Cicadas noisily burst into songAnd whirl in their mating danceOn branches of jade-green.In a lonely courtyard I composeA poem of distant yearsTo possess a moment in time.My heart is grieved then lifted by A memory of you in a thin… Continue reading

  • Veterans Have a Word to Say About the Constitution, Duty, and Who They Serve

    The Military News this morning contained an article titled “Military Veterans Call Out Trump, Hegseth and Pentagon in New Video.” Rather than post the entire article written by Nick Mordowanec, I am providing a link to their short video. This… Continue reading

  • Postcards from Taiwan: Three Poems

    Wanderers on the Narrow Path In the morning solitude Sunflowers lift their heads Serenely towards the ascending light. I too wander on the narrow path To where the sun descends beyond the Yu Shan Mountains. In the morning solitude Walking… Continue reading

  • Dreams and Expectations

    Tomorrow morning, I will be giving the D’var Torah (a sermon) on Genesis chapters 25:19-28:9. I am honored to have been asked. Below is the text. Derasha: Tol’dot, 22 November 2025 The words of the Torah are like fragments of… Continue reading

  • Breaking Up Is Hard to Do?

    By Carl A. Ten Hoopen Things happened quickly and quietly. Unexpectedly? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Only their closest friends caught the star quarterback’s drifting attention. His head-cheerleader girlfriend seemed to be flirting with somebody… Continue reading

  • 11 November, Part Three: The Reverberating Gunshot

    “’Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans,” Bismarck predicted would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.’” So wrote Barbara W. Tuchman in… Continue reading