I seek your face (for #blogElul 3: Search)

 

show me your face
in the face in front of me



show me your light
in familiar eyes

show me your heart
in the overflowing of mine



show me how to be hollow
so you can pour through me



show me your name
written in the wheeling stars

show me my name
written across lifetimes



in the face of my beloved
show me your face

 

Many years ago I heard Rabbi Jeff Roth offer the teaching that the mind is like tofu: it takes on the flavor of whatever one marinates it in. During the four weeks of Elul, I'm marianting in two melodic settings of parts of Psalm 27.

One is the Kirtan Rabbi's set of chants which use verses from that psalm, tracks 2-4 on his CD Achat Sha'alti (One Thing I Ask.) And the other is Nava Tehila's setting of verse 8, Lach Amar Libi:

High Holidays Chants מנגינות לימים הנוראים by Nava Tehila

This poem arose out of these two excerpts from the psalm. "One thing I ask of You --" and "You called to my heart, 'seek My face' -- Your face, Source of All, is what I seek!"

 

 

 

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.) Read #blogElul posts via the Elul tag; last year's posts are now available in print and e-book form as See Me: Elul poems.