Unsettling
This new Manichaeism,
The forgotten religion of the Manichees
Who imagined the cosmic struggle
Between good and evil,
The struggle of pure good and pure evil
The notion that G-d has enemies.
I wonder if the geographers
Of the vacant center
Could have imagined
What we have
Seen.
Sometimes
I feel adrift
In a rudderless boat
On a dangerous sea.
Then, I forget that for a while
And pray for the G-d
The great G-d the One G-d
The unclaimed G-d,
To send healing
Strength
And guidance
To the sick and the unprotected.
I am sure you will join me
And direct your holiest hearted prayers
In the direction of
The empty geography of this place.
Let your prayers
And your blessings
Overflow
Like a fountain.
Do you remember
When we welcomed them —
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David.
M took me aside
And spoke this:
Be brave,
He said –
I thought I had misunderstood him,
It was not a word I used often,
But this is what he said:
Be brave.
I heard it.
jsg, usa
From the narrows I call G-d
Who answers me with
expansiveness
— Psalms 118:5