Laser Fusion (for Tu Bishvat)

 

It’s Tu Bishvat, the New Year of Trees. 

Do not give up!

The forests burn but

Electric vehicles;

The seas rise but

LED lightbulbs;

Species disappear but

Solar power;

Millions starve but

Wind turbines.

We’ll be long dead but

Laser fusion!

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

    Within which lives our ingenuity and hope 

    Alongside our stupidity and despair,

May the solutions scale up and arrive in time 

To save us all from our own greed and folly, Amen. 

Happy New Year, trees! And good luck. 

Blessing for Mourning the Death of a Much Loved Animal

Art by Mike Cockrill

From the collection of Bert Salter Estate 

Blessed Holy Wholeness

Breath of the Universe 

Breathing us in

Breathing us out. 

Remembering us

Remembering our companions

Who let us love them with a full and pure heart

And who loved us back the same way. 

Amen

We were blessed to have them 

As  long as we did

And though I am really sad that they are gone,

I am really glad that they were here. 

Amen

I give thanks to the Holy Connector,

The One-ness that is eternal,

Which I experienced 

Through my sweet beasts. 

Amen

Brucha HaShleimot

Ruach ha Olam,

Breathing us in

Breathing us out.

We remember them,

We mourn their loss

And their memories are a blessing. 

And let us say, Amen

Home(s)

Light Shabbat candles now,

In your home

For the homeless. 

For the displaced

With no place

They can afford;

For the first peoples

Whose lands and cultures 

Were stolen or degraded;

For the animals

Invading your backyards. 

Too many bears, how dare they;

For those on islands

Swamped by the rising water,

Ocean where there once was land;

For those who survived guns,

There is no more safety,

It is lost forever;

For the addicted whose illness 

Destroys their true selves 

While the greedy make money;

For the houses and habitats

Burnt up in climate change’s fires,

And everything gone;

For the immigrants,

Losing the old lands to violence and poverty

And so unwelcome in the new.

Where 

Will they

Light their candles now?

This is our covenant:

Take care of the earth

And it will take care of you. 

So it is upon us to

Build housing;

Make reparations;

Preserve wilderness;

End fossil fuels;

Restrict guns;

Treat addiction;

Live sustainably;

Welcome immigrants. 

Create new homes

And save the old ones. 

Light candles, 

Now. 

Amen

Pairs (for Hanukkah)

God is a gerund,

A verb and a noun,

Doing and being.

Light is from God,

Both waves and particles,

Radiation and photons. 

Darkness is so full,

Many visions and none at all,

Frightening and safe. 

An event from history 

And the stories of rabbis,

The eight days exist and also evolve. 

Hanukkah is dialectics, between 

Revolution and accommodation,

Identity and assimilation. 

Solstice or Hanukkah?

Let’s not worry about 

Somebody else’s paradigm.

Light and dark are a gerund,

Seeing and not seeing.

Amen v’Amen.