Reason Ought Not Be the Enemy

September 23, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began on the evening of September 20 and ended on the evening of September 22. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are a time when one’s repentance may affect whether one is written into the book of life or the book of death for the coming year.

Today’s poem is a Rosh Hashanah poem about the relationship between reason and myth.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Reason ought not be the enemy

Of myth, but rather its interpreter,

Showing one what else one might not see,

Hindsight to which faith might well refer.

Holding on to myth does not require

A blindness to what science has to say.

Salvation is not merely a desire

Hoped for in some long-outmoded way.

A myth, like art, sustains itself through beauty,

Not only true, but doing double duty

As both the cast of conscience and the fire,

Habitude no argument need sway.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/reaso5.html. For more poems for Rosh Hashanah, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

September 18: Righteousness Ought Not Be for One’s Self

September 19: Remember the Utility of Shame

September 20: Return Each Year to Test the Ancient Waters

September 21: Rosh Hashanah Opens to the Page

September 22: Rosh Hashanah Opens Up the Book

September 23: Reason Ought Not Be the Enemy