Understudies Poem by gershon hepner

Within the fall the power lies
to rise again,
for in abysses we revise
the mise-en-scène
where roles we’re forced to play,
equivoc-
ating with our spirit like
a Dybbuk,
can change and be exalted when
we find the role
we need to understudy, men
who seek the soul.

Inspired by lines from S. Ansky’s Dybbuk, cited by Pinchas Giller in his book “Reading the Zohar”:

Wherefore, wherefore
did the soul
from its exalted height
fall into abysmal depths?
Within the fall the power lies
to rise again.

12/15/08