Friday, August 30, 2019

Ready

There is a rising expectancy
A hold-your-breath
gathering in,
 at the edge
that drops away
ten thousand feet
and ten thousand more.

A moment--
just that one,
that separates you from
everything else.
You hold yourself so
still,
so poised.

There's a heartbeat's difference
between waiting
and ready,
a heartbeat,
a moment,
the distance between
breaths,

You have walked the ten thousand steps,
and ten thousand more,
an eternity of steps
to cross that narrow distance,
to stand in hushed--
in rising
expectancy.

To leap into that moment,
to complete that breath,
to bridge the distance
between waiting
and God.

To stand
in grace,
in quiet stillness,
in breathless wonder,
on the other side of waiting.
And you gather in those tethers
that have shackled you
You gather them
and let them fall,
cracked and dusty and rusted through.

A breath.
A heartbeat.
A moment that stretches into
the rest of forever
(and then some)
And then
you leap.

Ready.

Friday, August 9, 2019

Harder Than Hard Ever Was

The floor was hard.
Never had there ever been anything harder.
She traced a scuff mark
with her finger,
her hand so small -
pudgy-fingered and soft.
There has never been anything ever so soft,
except maybe her heart,
which was tender and young
And had never known pain.
Not really.
She drew her knees up
to her chest,
where her tender heart beat,
and made herself small
As small as small as could  be
and never was she ever so small,
not when her Mama told her
how big she was,
how glorious was her spirit.
Don't hide, Mama said,
so she made herself as big as big could be.
But not now,
now was a time of small
and unknown pain,
and fear as big as the sky.
Now was the time of
a cold hard tile,
an ungiving tile,
scuffed,
empty,
Harder than ever hard was.
Harder than ever was pharoah's heart.
Harder than waiting
for Mama to come.

Monday, August 5, 2019

The Longest Journey: a poem for Tisha B'av

The longest journey
begins with a breath -
   breath being one of the names of God -
and ends in Breath:
   as the name of God is a prayer: amen.

It is played out
on a bridge more narrow than fear
and wider than Heaven,
and gathers together
the battered, embattled rubble
of broken days and history.
It is - as if it ever wasn't - love,
that journey of unknown proportion,
coming not because of,
nor in spite of, but 
a love that is whole
and endless
   and love -
      God, yes!
         Love,
             in all its infinite
                 and glorious
                    unknowing
                       boundlessness -
                          Love.

                          Love.
That is the journey.
That is the breath
That is the name
of God

Amen.


For Tisha B'av