21 Elul: Ki Tavo

When you go out
And the waves are crashing
Over the breakwater
Over the tops of the walls
At the edge of the land
When the rain is finely misting
And the wind howls
Around the circle at
The end of the road
You can breathe deep
The salt, the gasp,
The sudden question
Of what sea level
Actually is, can it be one
Fixed point, and you think
About how far you climb
From this absolute, how
Holiness climbs every step
With you, from this unsure recess
The whole way up.

Cheryl Carmi is a Vermont-based  writer, cohousing neighbor, and PhD student who has been engaged in a year-long project of poetic response to weekly parshiot (Torah portions), which are often about being in the natural world, and also frequently turn into transmedia improvisations with my ridiculously talented musician husband.