24 Elul: Elul Comes Around Again

Elul
A thin slice of moon
It transforms and gleams
As my soul prepares
My anticipation
Of a new year
The cycle
Recurring like tides
With the Earth
The clouds spinning eastwards
Turning together
The moon and the month
Waxing and waning and waxing again
The moon and the month
Turning together
The clouds spinning eastwards
With the Earth
Recurring like tides
The cycle
Of a new year
My anticipation
As my soul prepares
It transforms and gleams
A thin slice of moon
Elul

Rabbi Marisa Elana James (she/her/hers) is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Director of Social Justice Programming at CBST (Congregation Beit Simchat Torah) in New York. Marisa and her wife, contrabassoonist and translator Barbara Ann Schmutzler, live in New York City.