Explore Poems: Yom Kippur

On the holiest day we fast till sundown.
I watch the sun stand still
as the horizon edges toward it. Four…

all my desire is here before you,
     whether or not I speak of it:
I'd seek your favor, for an instant, then die—
     if only you would grant my wish.
I'd place my spirit in your hand,
     then sleep—and in that sleep...

I look for you early,
my rock and my refuge,
         offering you worship
     morning and night;
before your vastness
I come confused
          and afraid, for you see
     the thoughts of my heart.
 
What could the heart
and tongue compose,
       ...

I’ve expanded like the swollen door in summer
            to fit my own dimension. Your loneliness

is a letter I read and put away, a daily reminder
            in the cry of the magpie that I am

still capable of inflicting pain
            at this distance.

Like a painting,...

What is a Jew in solitude?
What would it mean not to feel lonely or afraid
far from your own or those you have called your own?
What is a woman in solitude:   a queer woman or man?
In the empty street, on the...

The hinge of the year
the great gates opening
and then slowly slowly
closing on us.

I always imagine those gates
hanging over the ocean
fiery over the stone grey
waters of evening.

We cast what we must
change about ourselves
onto the waters flowing
to the sea. The sins,

errors, bad...

They stack bright pyramids of goods and gather
Mop-helves in sidewalk barrels. They keen, they boogie.
Paints, fruits, clean bolts of cottons and synthetics,
Clarity and plumage of October skies.

Way of the costermonger's wooden barrow
And also the secular marble cinquefoil and lancet
Of the...

The roasting alive of rabbis
in the ardor of the Crusades   
went unremarked in Europe from   
the Holy Roman Empire to 1918,   
open without prerequisite
when I was an undergraduate.

While reciting the Sh’ma in full
expectation that their souls
would waft up to the bosom
of the Almighty...

Because you used to leaf through the dictionary,
Casually, as someone might in a barber shop, and
Devotedly, as someone might in a sanctuary,
Each letter would still have your attention if not
For the responsibilities life has tightly fit, like
Gears around the cog...

Open the gates—the gates of the Temple,
Swift to Thy sons, who Thy truths have displayed.

Open the gates—the gates that are hidden,
Swift to Thy sons, who Thy Law have obeyed.

Open the gates—of the coveted Temple,
Swift to Thy sons who confess and...

His sovereignty is o’er my gathered throng;
His glory is my faith within,
I seek Him for atonement of my sin—
This day of fasting to forgive the wrong:
And He will answer, He will say, “Forgiven.”
 
Holy—and mighty...

For we are thy people, and thou art our God;
We are thy children and thou our father.
We are thy servants, and thou art our master;
We are thy congregation and thou our portion.
We are thine inheritance, thou our lot;
We are thy...

These things I do remember; O I pour
My soul out for them. All the ages long
Hatred pursueth us; through all the years
Ignorance like a monster hath devoured
Our martyrs as in one long day of blood.
Rulers have rise through the endless...

The letters of the Jews as strict as flames   
Or little terrible flowers lean
Stubbornly upwards through the perfect ages,   
Singing through solid stone the sacred names.   
The letters of the Jews are black and clean   
And lie in chain-line over Christian pages.   
The chosen letters...