December 28, 2010 | 11:10 am

Lion

Posted by Emily Stern

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Written by Emily Stern 2010
after visiting Nishmat, a prospective Torah learning environment.
In Honor of Rebbe Akiva and the Concept of
ריבה ומיעט וריבה

Master of This one verse.

Who can create anything
my arms are raised to you.

my eyes being remade…

There’s a mountain out of a mole hill here. (I’m at a construction site.)

In Armaic, ari means argue, to make a case. and in other times, I hear Lion. It is only because of positivity.
Will you make the world big enough for you.

This vessel

just make the world big enough for you.

Avram is promised what he doesn’t want to lose,  says Rashi, a name that could have been great,
where there was nothing to lose,
i always thought why those things?

We are able to join you. Come, I am listening in perfection.

I joked that a good name of a drag queen would be Mechitzah.

Master of Return,

Master of making marks, and raising them, of rearranging.

of cats cleaving.

of cats leaping from dumpsters.

I break all bonds, politely, in the way you have been asked to be in this world
and the case

and how silly you are in my heart.

you are her name. Straying path after path.

lifting like a shovel any judgment i ever used to separate me.

I am a cloud, a clown.

 

 

December 19, 2010 | 5:07 am

Flame

Posted by Emily Stern

Joyous friend, joyous ocean,
all the world can hear you.
All the beings on this planet all the worlds of this world
finger puppets, dinner guests, dancing questions
dismal breaths, timely pressure, turquoise tests,
tambourines, and time.
I trust that you already know,
all that you already know,
all the beings on this planet, all the worlds of this world
take me to the depths of this earth, and meet your heavenly fathers sitting in gowns they wear to the balls when they dress as their mothers, going nowhere, knowing nothing, being all they are.
Teach me how to move
when space has settled like the snow
where all there is is You.
And too many hands grapple for a taste of desire, I am burning with the ember of the forest in the flame. And all I know is bounty in the nothingness without me you are brother you are lover you are father you are shame, you are oneness you are essence you are sacred you are lessons you have taught me of tomorrow where no yesterdays remain.
And when our magic fails us, as magic always fails us, know I’m a child of the womb Which means we bridge the sun at noon, high above the purple hues, I have known your love. and she has burned me on the chest, she brands me with a kiss and says, “this is a joke, this is a gift: the life you’re meant to live.”

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December 14, 2010 | 1:45 am

The Gates

Posted by Emily Stern

what would it be?

What would it be like?

am i the one holding myself?
who says this? who wants that?

under the gates, the plants are growing,

A timeless way to go about going,
a sure to be taste of reaping and sowing.

the One is holding itself.

I am where I am, what couldn’t this be…..?

all i know is under the surface, i’m magic and i am on my soul’s journey.
Holding myself like i’m the one,
the one You are.

 

What would it be?
what could it be like To Open to You,
as if the Gates were Mine?

 

What could it be?
what could it be like To Release this Love?

 

-by emily stern in endless and unrequited love x

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