Na’arah / Maiden

She, who is fearless,
who walks out of the wilderness
feral-shouldered and unbroken,

who is the luscious and undulating ocean
into which all tributaries flow,

who brazen-blooms firm-petaled
like ruby plumeria,

who is immune,
shielded by the perfumed forcefield:
lure of purring jasmine;
tempt of vespertine brugmansia,

who is a downright rhinestone constellation
in a black-velvet-jungle sky,
a millefleur satin-pink-pocketed
concealment,

who has forget-me-nots
darned into
the lining of her garment
by the celestial seamstress
herself,

who is the very mystery
we are discussing,
and the veil,

the leap
and the faith,

who dances
rather than collapses
when words fail her,

who is celebrated
for this decision
by the ancestors,

who is teeming with angels
awaiting her every invocation,
if ever she might make one,

who has a standing
invitation to
climb into
the lap of the infinite,
enumerate her wishes
like grains of sand,
like stars,
like dark matter,
like the embodied
waking-dream-state
of actual creation,

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who is the round
and unending melody,
the bottomless font,

who is sovereign,

who is daughter.

And who—
who, among us—
is unbegotten?

Not one,
not one of us
is not thus loved,
(like a righteous sunrise,)
into existence.

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Poem #7 in the Priestess Path Cycle / Kohenet Netivot Sidrah.

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With thanks to Rav Kohanot Jill Hammer and Taya Ma for The Hebrew Priestess.

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Photo: “Tinker Bell” by Massimo Barbieri (in collaboration with his daughter, Marta.)