A poem for #blogElul 9: Hear

HEAR (ELUL 9)


The sound that means
change is coming.

The shout of triumph.
The broken plea.

The cry of the heart
cracked open at last.

The rise and fall
of every breath.

The future I haven't lived
knocking at the door.

Tradition teaches that we should hear the shofar every day during Elul as a spiritual wake-up call. The three customary shofar calls are often compared to human sounds of triumph and brokenness. What is the sound which would perk up your ears, speed your heart, wake you to previously-unimagined new possibilities?

I'm participating again this year in #blogElul, an internet-wide carnival of themed posts aimed at waking the heart and soul before the Days of Awe. (Organized by Ima Bima.) You can read last year's and this year's #blogElul posts via the Elul tag; last year's posts are also available, lightly revised, in the print chapbook Elul Reflections.