Without Ceasing
The wash of dawn across the sky
reveals your signature.
Cicadas drone your praise
through the honey-slow afternoon.
The angular windmills on the ridge
recite your name with every turn.
And I, who can barely focus on breath
without drifting into story:
what can I say to you,
author of wisteria and sorrel,
you who shaped these soft hills
with glaciers’ slow passage?
You fashioned me as a gong:
your presence reverberates.
Help me to open my lips
that I may sing your praise.
Rachel Barenblat was ordained as a rabbi in January of 2011, on the same day that her book 70 Faces — a collection of poems arising out of conversation with Torah — was published by Phoenicia Publishing. She holds an MFA from Bennington and is author of four previous chapbooks of poetry. Since 2003 she has blogged as the Velveteen Rabbi; she lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and their son, and serves Congregation Beth Israel as their rabbi.
Thanks, Fiona and Kaspalita, for choosing this poem! I’m honored to be in this fine company.
How perfectly beautiful. I loved the poem the moment I read “without ceasing” — certainly to pray, to meditate, to be mindful, without ceasing, is an imperative. Thank you for this –
(o)
Beautiful, Rachel. A modern psalm.
Beautiful, Rachel, the poem and your reading. How I love “author of wisteria and sorrel!”
Dear
Rabbi Rachael,
i thank you mother and Rabbi Rachael for your inspiration over my life.
And i also thank our G-d on how he blessed you with speedy recovery and i also congratulate you on your second Rabbinical ordination and i answered Amein for the blessings which you gave me.