Since 1999 I have served as Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Olam. B’nai Olam is a unique and special congregation in Fire Island Pines, a beautiful summer community on Fire Island, a barrier island off the Coast of Long Island, which meets only for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. In 2007 I began writing a new poem every year for Rosh HaShanah – feel free to also read 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Here is the sixth, from 2012. Shanah tovah u’metukah.
Rosh HaShanah in the Pines, 2012/5773
We emerge, quiet and subdued,
into the darkening night of new year.
Across the dunes the ocean roars into the wind.
The tide tugs at our souls, a beckoning.
The pounding surf calls us to attention
and we turn, alert and yearning.
Tomorrow, under the bright sun of a fresh day,
seagulls will grab our handfuls of transgressions
tossed with great hope into the foamy spray.
But tonight the sea is dark, roiling and rough.
Waves beat against the shore,
then release, churning, back out to the horizon.
We are small, inconsequential in the infinite universe
yet even in the dim light of the setting sun
we cast a shadow on the sand.
As evening descends the air is crisp, bristling with possibilities.
Above, the sky fills with bright bursts of monarchs
making their annual pilgrimage home.
Copyright © 2012 by Hara E Person
Beautiful.
It beats my poem. Feel free to use it over the holy days:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Its holy day time,
If you are a Jew.
I’m influenced by the Minimalists