She says,
Let me die a thousand deaths,
if only for the privilege
of beginning again.
She understands the
ungloved grip,
the electric twinge
of impossible nostalgia,
that longing to get off-planet.
She says,
There is nothing wrong with this longing;
nothing wrong with your yearning,
nothing wrong with you,
there is no weakness in your grief,
not one iota of brokenness
in your inability to roll with this
regular regimen of suckerpunches
life offers up in shameful abundance.
She urges you to
feel yourself,
to resist
falling in line
with hazardous
prevailing paradigms.
She says,
Despite popular opinion,
your discomfort
is actually the likeliest sign
of your alignment.
Your lack of resonance
with that which oppresses
the intuitive
is what will save
the whisper within you.
Your guts have always known
the rhythm.
There is no misstep
in your glory choreography.
Your unwillingness
to dance around the issue
will make for the greatest
of entrances.
One more step forward.
The gate will swing open.
Deep breath now,
lean close,
welcome in.
***
Poem #13 in the Priestess Path Cycle / Kohenet Netivot Sidrah.
***
With thanks to Rav Kohanot Jill Hammer and Taya Ma for The Hebrew Priestess
***
Photo: “marès” by Dani Alvarez