MY EXISTENTIAL CRISIS 2012


Golem Olam (or, The Necessary Myth of The Individual)

Each one of us alive is collectively composing
The Necessary Myth of The Individual:

Every version a subversion
Of everybody else's;

Each one of these a model
Of one's own pretended self;

Each modification
A distortion further still;

The whole comparative literature
A corpus of corpuscles;

A quantum magnum opus
Of the most epic proportions.

So preposterous and so poignant,
We love to tell our tales tall,

Proudly standing on the shoulders
Of the giant that we are!





The Scales of Justice, Fallen From The Eyes

At the dawn of history,
The Holy One, the only One,
Composed a statement
And proposed a question,
From a place of poise,
A voice, a choice:
I am One - thus sufficient;
Will you be many,
And exist deficient?

May I make you
The receptacle of my spectacle,
Of disguised and divided light,
The gift of the limit,
The gift of sight,
The ability to see what you will never be,
The awe-full-ness of intimacy,
The delicious companionship of the lonely,
A possibility
That can only be known
Alone?

I Am One -
Will You Be Many?
I Am Who Am
Will You Be
Man?






The Run-On Sentence of Sentience

"… tohu and bohu …"

- And the author of desire
Brooding over the waters,
Breeding first a thirst
Before breathing it into earth -

- And though the mind
Simply cannot comprehend unboundedness,
Comprehension itself the fixing of boundaries,
The only assurance of the future is
An intractable dissatisfaction with the present -

(For indeed, to love and nurture means
To watch our beloved
Die before our eyes
Unceasingly.)

- And though love and desire seem sometimes
An endless revolt against emptiness and lack,
There is never any real inadequacy:
Only latency,
Waiting,
Patiently -

- And though desire’s reception vessel
Appears more like a leaky boat,
We are never in danger of sinking,
But eternally remain
Safely
Afloat -

"… and though all the waters return to the sea,
the sea is never full …."






To Be Or Not To Be

The premise and promise
Of fractions and factions
Is that 'one-ness' is the goal;
The extinction of distinction
We mistakenly suppose
Will make us 'whole'.

To continue to create
Or to deteriorate:
"THAT is the question".
(For surely the more we multiply,
The more we are divided.)

Yet, devising any system
Of decomposition
Only diminishes
The magnificence
Of the images
Of God.

Need we than again join the rabble
At the Tower of Babel
"To make a name for ourselves,
Lest we be dispersed"?
Or shall holiness continue to
"Multiply, covering the earth",
Fullness of fruit in the fullness of time
Inscribing Torah upon the heart
Of every individual, un-divide-able
Part?