Yom Kippur, Exile, Shara McCallum
Yom Kippur ends today 10/9. The Jewish holy day calls for a return of the exiles. The streets near my house are lined with exiles coming home to the synagogue. I am not a Jew, but the day gets to me. It’s such an important theme. Most of us are lost. Sometimes religious rituals help us find our way home. Here’s a poem by Shara McCallum, a Jamaican-born poet, that takes up the theme of exile, and some of my favorite images of birds and fish.
Exile
Say morning
and a bird trills on a doorstep
outside a kitchen.
Inside, fingers roll johnnycakes,
dropping balls of dough into oil,
splattering, singeing a wrist.
Here, a woman is always
singing, each note tethering
sound to meaning.
The trick is to wait
on this doorstep forever
The trick is to remember
time is a fish
swimming through dark water.
Harbors of Heaven 