Tevet

Seven is completion.

Chanukah lights where

Eight sends us beyond

This world,

Casting illuminated gaze

Toward the vision

Contained within

The silence of

Ayin.

I do not always know

When I should be quiet.

And the loudest I am

Is when I am angry,

Or, sometimes, when I pray,

Or, yes, here, too:

In the deepest vulnerability of all;

A poem.

Jacob teaches,

We weave,

And reweave,

The narratives,

Of our lives,

Over and over again,

As we reach toward

A liberation in knowing.

Why do we bless

In the names of

Joseph’s sons,

Manasseh: “To forget.”

Ephraim: “To be fruitful.”?

May it be

Because we are asking

For the trauma

To be healed

In our children.

Because we know

Some injuries

Are there

For generations.

And because we believe

In the blessed

Journey of

Becoming whole.

Tiferet Welch 30 December, 2022

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For more of Tiferet Welch's poetry, please visit her poetry channel or her Ritualwell profile.