You Pray to Be Included in the Book

October 16, 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 disconnect between an ancient faith and the modern world.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You pray to be included in the book

Of life before your yearly doom is sealed,

Making sure no sin is left concealed,

Knowing that there'll be no second look.

In words that are sincere, with guilt unfurled,

Perhaps you pray with some uncertainty,

Poised between belief and poetry,

Unwilling now to take it literally,

Remnant of a strange and ancient world.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/youpr2.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

October 11: Ye of Little Faith, You’re Welcome Here

October 12: You Wonder Whether Fate Is Accidental

October 13: Yom Kippur Remains a Day of Morning

October 14: You Cannot Get Away from Being Plural

October 15: You Pray Not for Yourself Alone but All

October 16: You Pray to Be Included in the Book