In the poem, “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children”, Amichai tries to convey that as you grow older you will suffer more, thus bearing more burden. The title and the first sentence reveals that God has pity on the younger children who are ignorant of the world and the surroundings, possibly alluding to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. God, however, pities people less and less as they grow older, even to the point of abandoning them. As a result of the increasing difficulties people face as they grow older, and as the war progresses, people also begin to abandon God by losing faith in him. People begin to lose faith and hope, believing that God has failed to protect them, even when people, “crawl on all fours in the scorching sand to reach the dressing station, streaming with blood.” God is not there for them during the time of war and destruction, but is there to protect the innocence of the younger (Kindergarten) children. Amichai may have written this poem to demonstrate the loss of faith in religion as a result of a tragedy, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was based on religion.
In the poem, “Try to Remember Some Details”, Amichai expresses how to bear witness to tragedy. He urges the reader to try to remember some details about people so when they die, it makes it more bearable. When death arrives, people are often forgotten and the world moves on; in order to keep their spirits alive, it is the duty of the living to remember details about them, from how they dressed, looked, and acted. This was especially important in the time of war/conflict when countless people died and are forgotten on the battlefield. Death has no preferences, it will swallow everyone on the battlefield, so it is the job of the living to carry on their legacy.
I really liked how you worded your analysis for Amichai’s poems. In the poem “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children,” God only shows mercy to pure kindergarten children but not so much the older groups of people even though they seem to need it the most. It could be seen that God abandons the people that really need him the most (people other than the naive, pure children). In the quote that you used, wounded soldiers are crawling on all fours in the hot sand towards the first aid station, yet God is nowhere to be seen and completely turned away from his attention. In addition, the poem seems to imply that humans should not rely on God too much for mercy or refuge. Instead they should depend on themselves more and through their conduct/kindness would they be protected.