☀️ The Daily Boost #855

We can only find the answer when we meet

The Daily Boost (published weekdays) is one of the newsletters of The Raft, the online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai. We Rafters ride the river of life buoyed by music, poetry, and other arts, along with open spiritual practice. Most everything here is free, but patrons (paid subscribers) get some special perks because Phyllis is extra grateful for their support. Sign up here:

THE ANSWER
Yael Deckelbaum
Translation from Hebrew to English by Noa 

Wind from the east is blowing soft over the land
Among the prayers at dawn,  and the distant motors grind
We must open up our eyes, get out of bed, and hear the call
But still without an answer to it all
 
We must function and deliver
Flowing helpless down the stream
On the highway, on the train 
We’re ruled by laws of the machine
And when our soul starts singing, we’re taught to never heed the call
Convinced there is no answer to it all
 
It’s not easy to awake
And in the mirror to remove
The armor that has gnawed on all that’s pure and good
Standing naked, open hearted
With our backs against the wall
We still don’t have an answer to it all
 
Where is all the goodness? all the gentle words to speak?
If we listen to our hearts, we lose the game, we’re seen as weak
We are partners, sisters, brothers
No one leads more than the other
Tiny pieces of the answer that we seek
 
Generations ask the questions
For our children, what remains?
Will their rivers too be poisoned by the greed and pain
The earth has offered blessings, sun will rise and rain will fall
But we still don’t have an answer to it all
 
But we can still choose to believe
We haven’t reached the darkest night
And understand that all we need
Are eyes that dare to see the light
 
Can we bravely gather round
And stand before the metal gate
To release and to embrace
And clean our hearts of all the hate?
Our prayers at early dawn will wake compassion from her sleep
For we can only find the answer
When we meet . . .

(My thanks to Yael Deckelbaum and Noa.)

“Lightening the Load,” a poem by Francis Dorff, O. Praem.

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