The irony of this poem is
That I amÂ
Exhausted by words.
Â
Slavish, ephemeral sounds
Carried over ether,
Etched nowhere,
Not even upon the heart.
Â
Swaddled in my tallisA four-cornered garment to which ritual fringes (tzitzit/tzitzi'ot) are affixed. The knots in the fringes represent the name of God and remind us of God's commandments. The tallit is worn during prayer and can also be drawn about oneself or around the bride and groom to symbolize divine protection.,
Amid 100 birthing cries,
Prone, I lay,
Breathing the scent of soil:
The ancestors.
Â
Adamah washes away
A mouthful of summer-fallowed words.
What I have come to crave is the solid.
Â
With soiled hands of an earthly potter,Â
I sweep away flaked remnants of hope,
That utterances aloneÂ
Are powerful enough for human creation.
My hands shall deliver a vessel of clay.
A seal,
Fused with the power of Eish,
Consecration branded into its body:Â
Salakh.
Â
On these cool autumn days,
As Ruakh once whispered rakhamim
Above a landscape of chaos,
I, in kind,
Exhale depleted letters
Of a departed vision,
Calmly watching them drift,
Settle,
And come to rest.
