Yearning Is a Function of Atonement

October 10, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is atonement, in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which falls on October 12.

Today’s poem is about the appropriateness of a selfish motive for repentance.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Yearning is a function of atonement.

One yearns for one’s own personal salvation.

Might that give one pause for just one moment,

Knowing one’s extrinsic motivation?

Is that yearning purely for oneself,

Praying for the sake of one’s own good?

Perhaps. But in the heart there is no gulf

Unbridged between the roots of what one would.

Repentance draws from all springs, as it should.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/yearni.html . For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Atonement.

October 10: Yearning Is a Function of Atonement