Tashlich

“Give Truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham...”

and my breath to the sea
                                      like its sound
[breathing in ...]                  breathing out
asanas like beach glass
the surf returns [...] the beach
              the sea takes shells, my thoughts
the year’s conquered inequities
                                   back to the depths

the gulls hang on the wind like        words

“...like that you swore to our ancestors from long ago.”

if the sea is the [Torah]
then what am I?
                 a [...] fish?
eyes like God’s – never closed

I toss no coins
                        just sit
breathing in – I breathe in
breathing out – I breathe out

back again
                     this year
as the waves themselves return, return

[to the] depths

Gloucester, September 2004

(The “Tashlich” prayer is said on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashana

by a pool o f water that preferably has fish in it.)