Twenty Poems

Elliot R. Wolfson
sabbath bow

cursed
be one
blessed
with test
to circumcise
circumcision
of flesh
inflected
through
word
wavering
confession
of submission
circumcised
in heart
infested
cliché
placated
on plate
breaking
passion
punctuated
pain
pinning
spine
spinning
on poles
of pleasure
i receive
in recollecting
circumcision
of tongue
twisted
time
fleeting
as bow
remembered
in forgetting
the forgotten
like christ
babbling
in pentecost
passion
breaking
open
place
beyond place
forsaken
forgotten
circumcision
of circumcision
in submission
of confession
deflecting
inflection
of what was
what would
not be
remembered
or forgotten

seward, alaska
23 july 2006
timewound

let us not
talk about
beginnings that end
or endings that begin
let us not
talk about
the passing of time
for time heals
all wounds
but the wound
that is time

let us seek not

to remember
the pain of pleasure
or to forget
the pleasure of pain
let us seek not
to look behind
or look ahead

let us embrace
this moment
the limitless sea
dusky and daunting
clanking against
speckled rock
flapping in the wind
winding down
eternity’s clock

let us take hold today

of tomorrow’s now
that shall never be
different or the same
bread & resurrection

between
bread crust
and body dust
hope lifts
her skirt
at grave
pillaged
expecting
light
to cross
crossing
of night
contracting
expansion
neither living
nor dead
between
body bust
and bread box
hope dons
his shirt
at gate
wedged
recalling
night
that crossed
crossing
of light
expanding
contraction
neither dead
nor living
à louer à vendre

life
a circle
squarely
ending
beginning
triangulated
desire
decimated
by memory
and hope
repetition
i cannot presage
foreshadowing
fortuitously
ill-timed
we garner
the residue
of the residue
niggardly
left behind
the flattened cone
of mirrored illusion
love became
subsequently
triangulated
beginning
ending
squarely
a circle
death

montreal
le quartier de l’art
14 november 2013
nocturnal vision

footlessly
the ghost
of her ghost
thumps through
the emptiness
quaking in the
quilted nothingness
of maternal night
before there was
or there was not
nihilating nothing
in dusk of moonlight
neither human nor angelic
the animal divine
treacherously trembling
in tumult of time
between river and rock
the radiance secretes
seed of immortal sap
the cloudless destiny
elapsed before dawn
unfurled as the future
in gleaming presence
of everlasting past
drifting like darts of dust
with no reason to trust
the passing of this night
foreknowing

nothing
but time
is close
to being
this far
to grasp
nothing
of her
glimmer
blackened
like iron
trembling
distantly
as death
on bridges
crossing
palaces
of passion
parched
twilight
shadows
of sand
stand
naked
before
the sea
aflame
with love
triumphantly
restrained
quaeritur una salus

in this
beginning
i cannot begin
to unravel
the end
that begins
the beginning
that ends
intrepidly
spineless
the night
rubbing against
love’s mortality
mimicking eternity
the gods flee
from their fleeing
without day or night
trapped in twilight
time moves immobily
over rivers of dust
interring broken trust
death shall not die
for in dying it must live

rosh ha-shanah
24 september 2014
solitude of night

in solitude of night
i fumble to fetch
feet unfettered
dancing frantically
as time pirouettes
around pillars of lament
deafening the darkness
illumining the grief
apparently nonexistent
fidelity of nonbelief
slicing the silence
binding the brokenness
love lifts its burden
too burdensome to lift
forlorn and adrift
we are alone together
seeking shelter
and one more chance
to cower cowardly
before the blindness
of too much sight
in solitude of night

yom kippur
2014
subway meditation

between
thought
of nothing
and nothing
of thought
lies naught
but nothing
unthought
calmly
bleeding
to death
haunted
by darkness
translucent
clouding
memory-light
flickering
falsely
before
nonbeing
of being
neither
seeing
nor seen
emptiness
adulating
emptiness
self-sprung
ceaselessly
unmoving
stillness
of breath
neither
exhaling
nor inhaling
returning
always
to same
difference
neither
different
nor same
nowpoint
midstream
between
nothing
of thought
and thought
of nothing
solicitously
nonthought
dreamtime
decimated
from dust
of trust
aborted
promptly
too soon
in womb
of routed
possibility

new york city

4 december 2014
low mass

in christ
twittering
distances
too deep
to delineate
timeloop
twisted
on tweets
of scorn
traversing
bridges
breathlessly
battered
grasping
comforts
methodically
misconstrued
between space
of nospace
and nospace
of space
impulsively
misguided
by vestments
of atonement
we procure
but squander
in the summer
of our autumn
even the wailing
cannot curtail
love’s dissolution
befindlichkeit

from well of fire

timelessly time flow
at roots disjointedly
her breasts bleeding
river of love’s rage
shackling the heart
to flowers fading
like august storm
leaving no imprint
on memory of oblivion
she came already gone
remembering the forgotten
pain of painlessness
suffering maleficent bliss
lifting like lilac mist
over cathedral gloom
bustling shards of doom
and tormented tongues
silently capitulating
in absence of touch
even ghosts we conjure
too cumbersome to clutch

june 9, 2015
prague
bodhi-mind

love’s carcass
scarred and sullied
interred in grave
of transient abiding
fading like twilight
into endless night
darkened by dreams
dissolving dismally
in space indissoluble
spawning skyway
delusive but diaphanous
incessantly spontaneous
forms of formlessness
arising regressively
cascading from fiction
forced to fabricate
treachery we validate
manifesting ignorance
mistaken for bliss
imploding this present
devoid of presence
listlessly lingering
wandering wounded
seeking shelter
in makeshift grave
of enduring desertion
convalescing

beware of mirrors
inverting shadow and light
too shallow to compute
in night revealing day
concealing night
we walk bewitched
exuberant in our slumber
as birds croon silently
beneath stars luminescent
grumbling in gloom of dusk
settling on antiquated scars
love’s balm cannot repair
the shadow & the butterfly

the butterfly knows

the shadow glows
where the shadow goes
pretending to be so
the shadow throws
its light against
the light of pretense
imperceptible feathery
the butterfly flittering
before the shadow
beaming buoyantly
the shadow knows
the butterfly glows
where the butterfly goes
pretending to be so
the butterfly throws
its wings against
the winds of happenstance
indiscernibly cumbersome
the shadow shivering
before the butterfly
crouching cavernously
the butterfly knows
the shadow knows
the butterfly knows
cry me a river

meandering
in madness
between doors
of darkness
dwindling
mindlessly
in light
of nothing
as clear
as nothing
becoming
eternally
for want
of time
in wilderness
seeking home
empty of heart
like mirror
not quite
invisible
and moon
swallowing
river of tears
lost like lover
perishing
persistently
this night
every day
death is born

nyc
30 april 2018
rêve sans rêve

to dream
the dream
without
dreaming
a dream
opening
the door
behind
the door
closing
before
grave
consume
desire
by worms
of time
writhing
rigidly
like leaves
quivering
from repose
of root

the rest
need not
be spoken
vijñapti-mātra

nothing to desire
but to desire nothing
in death we call life
nonattached to attachment
attached to nonattachment
ending the beginning of ending
beginning the ending of beginning
moonwave rippling on petrified pond
dissipating like cloud in sky empty of sky
nonbeing being nonbeing
contemplating nothing to contemplate
but contemplation of nothing
letting go of letting go
in life we call death
autopsy

deader
than death
compressed
as instant
between
void
of past
and void
of future
given to
no one
receiving
i swallow
emptiness
of solitude
binding me
to become
this life
of death
deader
than death
postpartum

tired
of living
oblivious
to oblivion
already
forgotten
in death
escaping
death
of dreams
with eyes
hankering
foresight
without eyes
seeking sight
like flowers
craving light
in darkness
encrusted
in grave
of dust
and dirt
imploring
an end
beginning
to begin
the end
ne‘ilah

lower waters weeping

from loneliness
that must be endured
in exile of spite
as upper waters raging
from tears they cannot spill
on open hearts closing gate
ending the end that cannot end
therein lies the hope
but time has cut its feet
on rocks of regret
too onerous to lift
too flimsy to discard