Ohr Chadash - New Horizons in Jewish Experience

The Ninth of Av

English Poetry

Night falls harshly

yet silently,

darkness

a prelude to death.

We sit solemn,

heads bowed downward,

candles lit on the floor;

in memory

and mourning

for an age long gone

an idea not yet born.

 

Death and destruction

raise their ugly heads

as visions of the Holocaust

eat away at the heart.

The Temple in ruins,

a burning cross

throws its shadow

ominously across the room.

A public ceremony

of remembrance

for those who are no longer,

martyrs and the innocent,

the brave and the unsuspecting.

A fire burns heavenward

to the One –

the only One.

 

Darkness, a veil of paradox

covers the moon.

The meaning of all this

lost in the maze;

waiting to be found

unexpectantly

in a moment of pain;

the holiness of the sacrifice

to sanctify Thy Name.

 

Stones, scattered and abandoned

have not forgotten.

My bones

weary and sore

crack beneath the burden –

determined not to let

all the suffering

be in vain.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
GET OUR EMAILS