Kabbalist Poem by gershon hepner

The working Kabbalist,
according to Kay Ryan,
ignores the shellfish list.
Kay’s thinking “Life of Brian, ”
not Kabbalist, for they,
although creative, won’t
eat shellfish, though they may
do what most rabbis won’t,
like meditate and claim
for each word a new meaning,
which rarely is the same
as rabbis claim when screening.
each word for its peshat,
a word denoting plain
and unembroidered truth,
for kabbalists complain
that truth is like a tooth
that must be pulled before
identifying roots.
Yet shellfish they won’t score,
unless they’re in cahoots
with Sabbateans or
the men whom Jacob Frank
persuaded to ignore
the rules which they all shrank,
like God who also shrunk
the world so He could make
the universe, slam dunk
a Masterful mistake.
No, Kay, the Kabbalist
will not eat shellfish, though,
while counting, she’ll insist
gematria’s KO.


Inspired by a poem by Kay Ryan in her collection “Flamingo Watching:

IMPERSONAL

The working Kabbalist
resists the lure of
the personal. She
suspends interest
in the Biblical interest
of interdicted shell fish,
say, in order to
read the text another way.
It might seem to some
superficial to convert
letters to numerals
or in general refuse plot
in favor of dots or half circle;
it might easily seem
comical, how she
ignores and obviously
erotic tale except for
every third word,
rising for her like Braille
for something vivid
as only the impersonal
can be –– a crescent
bright as the moon,
a glimpse of a symmetry,
a message so vast
in its passage that
she must be utterly open
to an alien idea of person.


12/9/08