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Don’t Think About Infinity – A poem for Parsha Lech Lecha

[additional-authors]
November 3, 2022
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Please look heavenward and count the stars,
if you are able to count them.” And He said to him,
“So will be your seed.. -Genesis 15:5

There are things I have no ability to comprehend.
The number of stars in the sky –
I lost count before I glanced up.

The number of grains of sand on Earth –
I know it must be finite, but even
a single beach breaks me.

The concept of infinity –
Yeah, but what’s after that?

Space, the edge of the universe –
What would I find if I took one step further?

Even a Rose Bowl filled with people –
a mere sixtieth of six million.
Could I ever shake every one of their hands?
Know even a fraction of their stories?

There are people who came before me
who made it so I could exist who
I will never know.

And people yet to come
(assuming this all holds out)
whose ears may never hear my name.

It may be best not to think about it.
This infinity, this overuse of the word
forever.

I sit here, evidence of the promise.
I am one of the stars.
I am one of the seeds.

The promise kept.


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 26 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 “I Am Not Writing a Book of Poems in Hawaii” (Poems written in Hawaii – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2022) 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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