Journey of the Heart

It can be hard to find enough quiet to be able to hear when we  receive a soul-call (our internal hotline to the Divine)… Artistic Photography by Jo Rodriguez of Catalyst  It takes several steps to really hear: We first need to stop and hold still, then to pay attention, then to actually listen to the words we hear inside ourselves. This poem contrasts two types of callings: The loud trumpeting of a shofar (ram's horn) which is played on the holy day of Rosh Hashana; Tekiah is the name of one of the notes; and is meant as a stirring communal call that none who are present can miss hearing.   The other is the reference to the "still small Voice" that the prophet Elijah heard from God in Kings 19:12. Here God tells Elijah that: "It is not only in the noise of the thunder and the fire that we can hear God's voice, but also in the deep quiet of our own hearts and minds." "Shema" is the Hebrew word for "Listen...

 I find that the muse often strikes when much of the world is asleep… As this poem came through to me at 4:00 a.m. following the memorial service of a 21 year-old member of our dance community. He fell while hiking alone, and his mom was both torn and bereft and reaching for connection with him from beyond.  While I did not intend it to be so, the poem came through to me in the style of Rumi and the other Persian mystics: fittingly as he was of Moroccan heritage.   The languaging for G*d is purposefully open-ended so as to be inclusive; however the phrases used to describe Him/Her are a translation from the Hebrew in my mind. Song of Grief
 
 Let yourself be as a hollow reed so the wind-breath of the Blessed One can blow through you
 and play you the sounds of your grief:
 your moan
 your sigh
 your keening cry.

 Do not close down or block 
the Breath of life 
from finding in you opening.

 Gently, gently
 let you...