Psalm for shabbat

A psalm for Shabbat...

Slow.
slow and sweet, like
honey.
like light.
like grace.
Shabbat comes
and my heart opens
like light
slow.
and I
breathe

Shabbat shalom to all I love and hold dear. <3 p="">

Psalm 151

A psalm, a song of beauty and grief.

I have lived a life of fierce joy,
pursued a world of justice;
every breath a hymn to Your name,
every step a prayer.

You have lifted me
and I rejoice.
You have sheltered me
and I am redeemed.

And now I am weary,
my body spent.
I long for Your promise
of sweet grass
and still waters.
My words have all been said,
and my music,
once exultant,
has quieted.

There is great beauty in this silence,
and grief.

And You, God,
ever-present,
You speak,
so that time and worlds
continue to be.
You sing,
and the glory of Your song
urges us all to rise.
This was the beginning.
This will be the ever and always.
This is the eternal now.
Selah.

To Rise, a poem of healing

Let me rest this body
that has known pain,
yet still it slips into numbness.
Let me rise,
Your right hand to guide me
and place healing on my lips,
tasting of sweetness and sky.
Oh, let me rise!

I want to soothe this caged-wing soul,
loose feathered and desperate,
let go the moments that slip through,
withering and dull,
so that I can no longer feel 
the glory of You,
though its shadow 
rests upon me like a kiss.

I want to fly with the larks
who rise in exaltation.
They know Your secret name
and sing it, each one, an ascension
into the vastness of sky and wind,
a psalm, 
a song, 
a glory.

Oh! Let me rise,
so that my heart rejoices,
so that my being exults,
my body rests, secure
But let me rise and be whole.



Based upon Psalm 16

Open the Gates

An alternative reading for Psalm 118

Open the gates of justice.
They are rusted shut
and chained.
Weeds  and brambles
choke the path
that leads there.

Open the gates
and let all enter -
the orphan and the widow,
the poor;
the stranger,
whose heart you know,
for you were once a stranger
in a strange and narrow land.

You were tortured and
enslaved, hunted,
humiliated,
stripped of your humanity
and your lives,

because you were
differently skinned,
otherly colored,
your faith
your ideas
and clothes
and loves
were not the same.

Open the gates
for the despairing and desperate,
for those whose
hope has been stolen.

Oh, My children!
Open the gates that
you have nailed shut.
I beseech you -
I beg you!
Open the gates.
Let the light of justice
shine; let all of
My children. rejoice.

A Song of Knowing

A Song of Knowing

Shall I serve?
Shall I sing a song
of ascents and
glory?

Shall I rise, and
offer a blessing,
as color first stains the
arc of Heaven -
rose gold and royal blue,
a canopy of grace?

Shall I bow low,
as the light slips away
into the coming dark,
the eternal dance
of night into day
into night
into day,
ever and again,
and the skittering of stars
that shine their reflected light
upon us?

But You are higher still -
higher than stars,
and more glorious.

Shall I praise Your name
that rests on my tongue,
unspoken, its sacred letters
a puzzle of secrets and sound?
But my breath knows You,
and speaks a benediction of joy
that rests in Your name,
A sweet sound
that rises up.

Lift me,
You who dwells in
holiness, that stretches
into now and forever.
Your name shall lift me
And I shall sing
a song of ascent
and praise

Hallelujah


For Psalm 113

Forever Song - Psalm 145

Forever is a long time,
but I will try
to sing
an endless song.

I will sing
of greatness
and glory,
     of pain
     and love.
And praise will rise
like heat
in my body.

I will live in Your
forever house,
and sing You
a forever song
     a psalm
     of mercy
     and stumbling
     grace.

I will feast
at Your table.
and recount Your
greatness,
     and I will find joy
     Rising,
     an endless hosanna
an eternal psalm.

Forever is a long time
but I will sing
to You
a forever song

Scattershot

I walk a path of in-betweens;
Of not-quites
and almosts--
Scattershot potential
spread before me
In infinite array.

But I am filled
nonetheless,
nevertheless--
Never less,
perhaps--
or not quite--
but certainly not less:
I am filled
with wonder.

Filled enough,
so that even on this narrow path
of scattershot possibility,
bordered by almost
and limned in not-quite,
I lift my eyes
Up--
Raised,
like mountains or breath,
In a limitless ascent.

Shaded by infinity,
Yet lit by sun and moon;
Feet sure
on this twisted path of
Potential,
I lift my eyes
Up,
And I am raised -
Like mountains or breath,
And I dance--
Forever dance
In the palm of God's hand.

Twenty three

And so I will lay you down
In a field of gray grass,
Bending gracefully with the wind,
And shadowing a hidden, twisted path
That leads nowhere--
Or everywhere.
Back,
Forever back,
Until I stand again
At this place--
This field of fearful beauty.

I will lay you down,
Aching with weariness,
A hungering desire for
Your touch,
Your light,
Your laugh--
That is incandescent and
Pure,
And restores me--
And comforts me--
And feeds my soul.

I will lay you down
And weep,
And be made holy,
Sipping from a cup
That overflows with my grief.
But I will lay you down
And I will dwell forever
Sheltered only by the memory of you.

Modah Ani

We walked
From one place to another
In quiet wonder at the rising of the morning.

Light filled us
And color.
Under canopies of gold
Shot through with green
And strong branches
Flecked with a suddenness of blue
Stretching halfway to forever.
Geese and crows
Sang their psalms
To the One
Of Creation and
Becoming
A murmurous mix of
The shuffles of leaves
A muffled crunch
Signaling summer's slow end
Soft-voiced under canopies of gold.

Chill air coiled around my fingers
My bare-skinned fingers
And the rough bark of
Bare trees
Suddenly bared
Gently, sweetly bared
Yet rough
Edged in hardness
And sudden sweet chill.

They began
They ended
Distinct and edged
In beginning to end
What I saw
What I heard
What I felt
On that wondrous
That glorious
That holy walk we took
To greet the rising of the day.

That scent of morning
On that shared path
That leaf-edged path--
The morning scents were
Almost
Were not quite
And in-between

They urged me on
Brought me here to this edge
Quickening me to this light-filled edge
This beginning
this ending
Of earth and sky
With such fullness
A richness of sound and light and still,
With an ever-present
Becoming.

Amen.


To my teachers and friends
all of you who walked this path with me
and filled me with light
thank you.
Shabbat Shira 2012/5773

Ein Sof at sunrise

there is not separation

there is God
whose spirit hovers
like breath
like life
twined and waiting

there is not beginning in this
Beginning
and no end to this earth that touches
this heaven that laps at
this sea
that slips into
this darkness
that has no end
that is ein sof

there is not sound
in this endless beginning
no voice that calls
and dances on
liquid night
a canopy of eternity in the
midst of waiting

so expectant!
so lonely and eager a God
a wanting and endless God
whose breath is the sea
whose voice is the earth
whose touch is the heavens
who dances in darkness
and light
liquid as night
sharp as need
soft as desire


light--
entering
breaking
a separate thing altogether
a severing moment
in an eternity of moments
a division of earth that touches
heaven that laps at
the sea
that dances in spiral prisms
that limns each thing
each separate thing
of earth and heaven and sea
that is beloved of God
that breathes
and moves
and is still
and is gathered
and calls
each to each
one to another
waiting
expectant
endless

Light
to separate the
Darkness
and find the edges of
night
to rim the world in an endless moment
a tidal moment
a gathering, waiting, and restless moment

and there will i dance
in the palm of God's hand
and then will i sing
an expectant psalm
an endless hosanna
a bursting and
rising song
Selah