The Days of Awe

The house without a clock,
the flourishing scarves,
the swaying shadows,
the book cupped in the hands,
the pages on fire,
the choir of the blessed.
I was a candle of constancy,
a flame against September’s spectacle.
I was a short word
in the service,
awe in a child’s body,
a small scroll lifted
into the silence
we rose up towards.
I stood in the sacred
perpetual, paused,
stared into our portion, and sang.

From “Book of the Unbroken Days” (Mammoth Books, 2004). Philip Terman also is the author of “Our Portion: New and Selected Poems,” “The House of Sages” and “Rabbis of the Air.”