You Cannot Be the Person You Might Wish

September 29, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. This week’s theme is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on the evening of September 29.  The ten days between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) 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 poem for Yom Kippur about the interplay between ritual, self, and expectation.

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

Yours,

Nick Gordon

You cannot be the person you might wish,

Opening the door to who you are.

Morning comes alike to fowl and fish,

Kindled by a mystery from afar.

In you there is a music all your own

Pouring through the sluices of your heart,

Passionate with love as you atone,

Unmoored from self by ritual and art,

Restored to some bright whole not yours alone.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/youca3.html. For more poems for Yom Kippur, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

September 25: Holiness and Faith Are the Rewards

September 26: How Might I, in Faith, Do as You Ask

September 27: You’d Like a Shot at Serious Redemption

September 28: You Are Not, Will Not, Do Not What You Dream

September 29: You Cannot Be the Person You Might Wish