Someone said, “Arthur will be leading services this year”,
And I saw him in my mind, eyes closed in ecstacy
Mouth uttering alchemical words
Hands and arms drawing divinity and mystery from the ancient air
Letting collective understanding move him
Lao-Tsu of the synagogue.
Arthur will be leading services
As autumn approaches
Alive in the changing winds
Every color taking vibrant shape and rippling in the atmosphere
A succussion of eternal cycles
Hahnemann of the temple.
Arthur will be leading services,
Blazing the trail
I can hope to follow, if I pay enough attention
If I loosen my hold on my own sense of time and importance
He will conjure all my ancestors
He will say the Name
Aharon of the season.
In October Arthur will be leading services,
Having joined the legion of ancestors he so often invoked,
And I will sway and dance in his footsteps
Singing of wild leaps into the unknown
With the assurance of guidance.
(9/9/03, 11/10/04)