It’s the Festival of Lights, though you might not 
guess it from this pale patchwork of pastels, 
even the menorah’s flame gone dim as memory. 
The circle of dancing men casts enormous 
shadows, gravid with the past, celebration 
suffused with melancholy. Day follows night, 
that bonded pair of opposites. Women huddle 
in the margins. And the moon, outside this 
room, waxes till it fills the sky, then wanes, 
gathering new brightness to sow among the stars. 
Light is always with us, even if we must 
carry it in our own hands. 

*Hasidic Dance During Chanukah Celebration (oil on canvas, 1970) was created by twentieth-century Russian-born painter Marevna (1892–1984), aka Marie Vorobieff, who was known for her work with Cubism and pointillism. The painting was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 2006 and is held in a private collection. Sotheby’s Catalog Note includes details about the painting, but only a small image.

A larger view is available at WikiArt, along with a gallery of 63 additional works by Marevna.

Robbi Nester

is a retired college educator and the author of five books of poetry. She has also edited three anthologies of ekphrastic poetry and hosts two monthly Zoom series. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, most recently MacQueen’s Quinterly; ONE ART: a journal of poetry; Storyteller Poetry Review; Verse-Virtual; and Whale Road Review.

Author’s website: https://www.robbinester.net

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ A New Way of Looking, a review by Rose Mary Boehm of Robbi Nester’s latest collection of ekphrastic poems, About to Disappear, in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 30X, December 2025)

⚡ After Life, ekphrastic poem by Robbi Nester in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 29, August 2025); nominated by MacQ for the Pushcart Prize

⚡ Three Poems in Verse-Virtual (November 2024)

⚡ Dancing White Egret, ekphrastic poem by Robbi Nester after a photograph by Philippe Rouyer, in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 14, August 2022)

⚡ Naughty Bits, poem in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 11, January 2022); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2023.

⚡ After Blossom, ekphrastic poem after an etching by Phil Greenwood in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 3, May 2020); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2020, and selected as a Poetry Finalist.

⚡ In Memory, five poems by Robbi Nester in Live Encounters (August 2021)