Towards a Progressive neo-Hasidism
What will be the sacrifice?
The Spirit will provide the longbow
that tests your skill, the poison that tips
the arrowhead, the arillus
that tempts the birds, the toxic seeds
the birds shit out to propagate
the demon, terror, cipher powers.
But where is the body? Where is the plague?
What hangs, what burns, what bleeds, what vomits?
The bark and bast bear Taxol and cords.
A yew will live nine hundred years
surrounded by nine realms. Or. Three
of three plus one. Ten spheres of nothing.
They are ten and not nine, ten and not eleven.
Judith Baumel
Judith Baumel is a poet, critic and translator. She is Professor Emerita of English and Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Adelphi University. She has served as a Fulbright Scholar to Italy, the president of The Association of Writers and Writing Programs and the director of The Poetry Society of America.
