Exodus

What promise

Was forgotten or broken

To make us so

Forsaken?

Surely there is

A purpose to

This wild suffering

Our abandonment

Did we

Choose this

Freely?

Our wanderlust

To wander lost

In wilderness

My Lord!

Give us a holy fire

To warm

Our hearts

It’s cold living

With our only friends

The stars

Before we lived enslaved

Yet we were sometimes

Warm and full

Now we are free

Free to live

With hunger and

Uncertainty

HE WHO IS

I beg and plead

Give us a sign

Something

Something to believe

To help us see

This loss and lostness

Is necessary

Must our destiny

Be forged

In the fire and ash

Of what we flee?

I am who I am

And yet

I am nothing

On my own

Who am I?

Answer me!!!

If thou are more

Than false hope

And the silence

Between pleas

…At last

A stillness gathered

And smothered

The susurrant sands

Silence vast and heavy

Cloaked the land

And terrible nameless fear

Reached out its hand

All was dark

I could not see

I fell on stone

(Cracking my skull)

And in my head

I heard these words:

I AM

NOT A MAN

OR A PLACE

I AM THAT!

I AM

THE SPACE

BETWEEN

EACH STAR AND STEP

I AM WORD…

AND THOUGHT…

AND BREATH…

THE WANT OF WHICH

IS DEATH!

I AM FIRE

THE FIRE YOU MAKE

WHICH YOU SHALL

ALWAYS CARRY

IN YOUR HEART

AND YOUR HANDS

THAT I AM

AND YOU

YOU ARE THE LIVING THING
THAT MUST BURN

MY OFFERING

YOU ARE THE GUARDIAN

OF THE BREATH

OF LIFE

YOU CARRY WITHIN

THAT THOU ART!

I awoke

Beneath a sky

Bright and clear

No longer lost

And now I see!

The only

Holy land

Lives in me

Those falsely

Promised lands

Will always be

Out of reach

Beyond the sands

Our worth

Is held just

In these hands:

That love

All living things

That care

For each other

And tender

The earth

It is enough

(Lest it be spilled)

This Earth

Our journey together

The pain of

Being born and

Of being

A slave

Or to choose

The suffering

Of one

That struggles

To be free

It is enough

And more

I stand

A brightly burning flame

Amongst the stars:

Hineni, hineni;

I’m ready, my lord.

From Canto for David, ten poems about Israel and Palestine. The introduction, dedications and suggested reading are on the Canto’s page.