Some of us always look for light. Matthew explained to me years ago that photography is all about light and, in a way, so are so many words.

Hanukkah is a holiday just like Kwanzaa and Christmas where we create as much light as we can: candles, colors, candelabra. There are times, like this one, difficult years with inconceivable shootings and violence, where light becomes even more important. People have always provided light for me. Strangers and family and friends. That’s where I have always looked for light. So does Matthew. Our postcards this year for you are intended to give some of that light to you.

We don’t tell one another thank you often enough. Thank you is its own kind of light.

Thank you
is hard
to say.
We should be
able to
say thank
you all the time
alongside
I love you.
There is no love
without thank you.
We are afraid
sometimes
afraid
to say that we
would not be
the same
not have the same
good life
if you
weren’t there
without you
we would miss you
and when you
are here with us
what we want to say
over and over
although we rarely do
is thank you.

About the Series. Postcards for Hanukkah is a sequence of eight photo-poems by Matthew Septimus and Esther Cohen. Each day, for the eight days of Hanukkah, we will release a new postcard, which we hope give some light to you.