Poem: The Gift

Sitting before a window, with no desire
but to see with the heart, clearly:
you watch the shadows come
and go,
you let yourself be forgiven.
Clouds cross the sky, mending
the roughened edges here and there,
part way through your life.

From “The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season” (Brandeis University Press, 2014). Marcia Falk is a poet, scholar and translator from Hebrew and Yiddish. Her other books include “The Book of Blessings,” a re-creation of prayer from an inclusive, non-hierarchical perspective, and “The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible.”