The poem below is entitled Bending Toward Light. It is liturgical(ish); invoking the Barchu and Yotzer Or, as seen through an activist lens. The first version of this poem was written six days after the murder of George Floyd.
Take a knee,
And when you rise,
May you be greeted by the light of your soul,
The fire of your spirit,
Illuminating the darkness.
The darkness that walks among us,
Making paths for injustice and the sowing of discord.
The darkness that provides cover to institutions and people that uphold symbols,
Physical and systemic, of oppression.
An oppression that believes some creation is expendable,
Filling the dirt and concrete with sanguine songs whose notes sing out to the heavens;
ignoring the unique divinity contained in each of us.
As the Divine renews our days,
May we, too, renew, in this season and the next,
Our promises to life, to rest and renewal, to continuing the fight against the darkness
And bending, ever forward, toward light.
