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Old Man with Beard Descended From Sky – a poem for Torah portion Shemini

[additional-authors]
April 16, 2020

and the glory of God appeared to all the people.

What form did this glory of God take?

(You’ll forgive my gender neutralizing of
Lord from the original text. I’d gender
neutralize my coffee mug if I could.)
And I’ve already lost track of where
I was going with this. Let me begin again –

What form did this glory of God take?

Old man with beard descended from sky
Old woman with beard descended from sky
Beam of light
Grocery delivery person
Sanitation truck driver
Sound wave
Human less than six feet away
Dinner
Clothing
Shelter

What form did this glory of God take?

After the meat was burned in tribute
After the smoke ascended and dissipated
After what happened in the tent, stayed in the tent

Aaron licked his lips
and left us to remember
the glory of God is
in the air we breathe
the cake we bake
the soul we commingle with
and anywhere we choose
to let it in.


God Wrestler: a poem for every Torah Portion by Rick LupertLos Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 23 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “Hunka Hunka Howdee!” (Poems written in Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2019) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.

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