Yom Kippur 2006
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Drawing by Jane Sherry |
Today, as Autumn burns the hills,
is a good day
for atonement. I want to say
I’m sorry,
and I will, to the salmon clouds
shrouding the east
this morning, to the earth beneath
the streets, to crows
on the wires I pass under, to those
pigeons pecking scraps
outside the market’s sliding doors,
to all the young ones,
creatures, humans, I say
I’m sorry,
I can’t say it to the one great
being all at once,
my own spirit’s too small, and I
don’t believe
in any ancient image of a man-god
anywhere at all.
Today, October beginning, baseball
season over and
entering the playoffs, it’s Yom Kippur,
and I’m sorry,
kids, for the endless blood-sport
we call war,
sorry the shining chariots of our day
still rumble along
the roaring highways dividing the wide
stretches of crowded
flats of the poor’s houses, I’m digging
change out of my pocket
for coffee, stepping into the market,
and considering
the smallness of this whole world, this little
miracle of the air
and ocean in light, of evolution,
and love leading
to the making of young, who learn
also to fight,
and I’m sorry, humbled, by my own nature,
before the silent
answer of the sky possibly accepting
my atonement,
not a prayer, not a hope,
a wondering.
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Jed A. Myers is a Seattle poet and musician whose writing has been published in various journals, posted on web sites, heard on radio, and performed, mostly by Jed, in an array of settings in the Pacific Northwest. He’s won several regional awards, and hosts a regular poetry gathering in his part of town. His loose network of collaborators, ArtsforHearts, puts on benefits in local spaces for a wide range of real life causes.
Visit Jed's Poetry Archive at Satya Center to read more of his poetry.