Poetry as [a Form of] Prayer

PRAYER
For Raya on her bat mitzvah

The force that sends light
through the cracks
in everything
needs eyes to see

May it find you
may it find your eyes
enlighten your mind
gladden your days

May your eyes see the beauty
and sorrow of the world
clearly and keenly oh
and may light lead you to love

PRAYER TO THE SHEKHINAH

In my prayers night and day
is the hope that you will visit me
which possibly you have been doing
all the while inside my skin

offering truths of birth of lamentation
lifted from every mass grave in the world
scratching me pinching me from inside
calling me an idiot

since I do not know how to reach you
by myself in the carapace of this body
struggling like the turtle
to move as fast as I can

and not get run over crossing the street

you at a distance beloved my mother my daughter
you at a distance my soul who remains at a distance
they say you will travel to meet me
if I travel to meet you pity I am so slow

but am grateful for the handful of past
moments you have spoken with me the fool
who hoped to be counted among the poets
weeping along the path to her own soul

Poems excerpted from The Holy and Broken Bliss, Alicia Ostriker, copyright October 2024, Alice James Press. Read an interview with the poet here.