Deuteronomy 26: In Writing

Gather the given.

Let it swell

full globed and weighty,

let it fall in your palm

like a heart

like a fist.

Can you carry it

without spaces

cracking between your fingers?

Can you carry it,

unbroken?

Can you leave it

untaken?

Unwitnessed,

have I spoken?

Listen to the sound of my voice,

the fall of my call,

I say you today

and you are here

and you say me

and I am here,

full to bursting

like a pod 

heavy with seed

Swallow the seeds

like the earth

like the water

feel roots shoot

and take hold

round your heart

that spurts and bursts

 Like that first day

when I first felt flesh break

the juice spurt

It was good on the tongue

and burned going down

and I felt my skin  turn translucent

till I wrapped it with words

with leaves

stripped the trees

to cover me, cover me, cover me quick.

And now I ask,

If both our voices wander

on the heat of the day

can we bloom in the space between?

Deuteronomy 20: In Writing

Always, at the threshold

Woman, earth, and tree

Always the constellation,

with the gleaming

always fruit a moon

dripping overhead

Always her arms,

her fingers curled in tight buds

Always the blossoming of her belly

a room expanding to hold

like the earth always beneath

calling to your feet

Always the question:

Will you rest in her arms?

Will you take the fruit?

Waiting to be given

Waiting  to be taken

Leviticus: Chapter 1

When Man comes close,  

come with animal

Calling from the door

Come close to the door

Emanating outward,  

approaching inward 

Choose the path and come in desire

[For full chapter, click here

Exodus closes with God's Presence descending on the Tent of Meeting. Now the Tend of Meeting is active, and God "calls" to Moses from within. This first communication shares some of the elements of the creation of the Dwelling: a focus on the liminal space of the "doorway"; an interaction of human choice and desire (ratzon) and God's definitive command. The key word is korban/karov "to come close". The repeated phrases are the anaphora "if from x is his offering"--highlighting the space for choice--and the closing refrain "for a pleasing fragrance to God"--highlighting the relationship.

But there is also a change of ambiance and tone. From speaking of "men" and "women" (ish, isha, nashim), we have moved to the primordial name of the species--Adam, human, earth creature: "if an adam should bring an offering." If in Exodus, the offerings were of creativity,  human-as-artist, here the offerings are of blood and guts, human as animal, The Dwelling, once activated, seems to call to the most primal elements of humanity. Echoing in the background is Abel's first offering of "firstborn sheep," which were accepted]

Genesis 3: In Writing

You said I was taken
a bone from your bone
you said I was given
a flesh to your flesh

I heard a voice
speak to me
and found my voice
to answer

chime and counterchime
a rustling in the trees
neither taken
nor given
changed at each turn
world made and remade

I see my hand reach
the glow of its skin
move my fingers
feel them take form

close them and now I take
hand it out
now I am the one that gives

Felt it squirt between my teeth
felt it trail down my throat
till its warmth settled in my belly
a glowing ember
my own small sun

you ate it in a quick gobble
and ran, hiding, to the trees
I held it within
my own small garden
that moved where I went

you spat it out
and now are hungry, hungry
always starving for food
I am filled
with it inside me
till the slow agony when I must
push out
the full form of ingested knowlege

Genesis" Chapter 3

Who is the taker,
who the giver?

Genesis 2: In Writing

It begins with absence
the emptiness contained more
an inside
from which outsides can split
endless flowing rivers
wandering ever further

Till you again find the absence
the still, silenced murmur
dissipated in the mist
that enters your lungs
wets your hair

you breath it
contained,
in your flesh
see it in other flesh
outside

Two absences
two groping hands

brought together

further apart

always against

never united

Genesis: Chapter 2

Loneliness
and the spaces between
Inside and out