The Struggle for Faith

Hello Poetry Lovers,

Today I'd like to share a new poem that has just been accepted for publication in " THIRD WEDNESDAY," a literary magazine from Ypsilanti, Michigan. Their website is www.thirdwednesday.org.

I rarely offer one of my own poems on this blog, for several reasons, among them, the fact that matters relating to my Jewish faith and heritage are just one of several different themes in my work. Of course a Jewish sensibility probably colors everything I do, including my writing. This is perhaps true, and definitely arguable.

Here's the poem:

 Prayer Against Tramping On Angels

To enter the garden
of the sacred and blind;
to savor the sharp-cut
orange melon, the dark grape
that sugars the breath of the men
who sway and who chant;

To hear the sage to whom they bend,
whispering before them,
old and curled in a white
silk-fringed shawl,
to kiss the fringes, to bend with them;

To recite the prayers for rain,
for oil, for healthy cattle;
to press past this pleading
into my own encumbered
soul for a blessing,
for this is how I am made:

To struggle against the trickster
who lurks beyond the gauze curtain
that hides the girls and the women;
who appears, wide-eyed, toothless,
and hungry, come to tramp down
the temple of angels and laugh.

To fight him, and to win.

  — Judith R. Robinson

My guess is that you, dear reader of this Jewish Chronicle blog post, may recognize the trickster with whom I do battle.

Thanks for clicking in!   
xo  Judy

Read more: The Jewish Chronicle - entry THE STRUGGLE FOR FAITH