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Gratitude – A Poem for Parashat Yitro

[additional-authors]
January 29, 2016

How you lifted me

Upon eagles’ wings

When I despaired

I’d not recover

Nor swoon over grandchildren.

You swooped down

And plucked me from the pit

As a father snatches a child

From a dangerous sea

And a bird hovers over her nest

Turning tenderness into ferocity

When her fledgling is threatened.

In an instant I

Forlorn

Was restored to life.

So swiftly you came

Streaking across skies

To set me gently

Upon pinions

And shield me

From malignancy

And hunter’s arrows

From inert Sheol

And loneliness

Relentlessly beckoning

Like gravity on lead.

Higher than mountains

You lifted me

Insignificant and small

You robed in grandeur

Aided by healers

You attending from Your perch

Drawing me close

To them and You.

How can I repay them for my restored life?

How can I praise You?

 

Poem by Rabbi John L. Rosove – inspired by Exodus 19:4

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