by Claudine Nash (New York, NY)
an ancient thread
dyed in modern colors
woven into our every action
and outlook,
to my best knowledge, Judaism is
the comforting cloth
that warms me upon waking,
the string that ties me
to every Jew who ever
stood at the footpath
of the mountain. To
my best knowledge,
Judaism is the fabric
of my family, it is
the holiness laced into
our everyday moments,
our rituals, meals, music,
worship and sacred
times and seasons, to my
best knowledge, it is
the stranger welcomed into
our tent, it is a quilt
of blessings.
Claudine Nash is an award-winning poet who lives and writes in New York. She has authored five poetry collections, most notably Beginner’s Guide to Loss in the Multiverse (Blue Light Press, 2020) which won the 2020 Blue Light Book Award. She has also edited three poetry collections and is a practicing psychologist. Widely published, her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer, Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes and briefly travelled through space as part of the Writers on the Moon time capsule of contemporary writing.
The Jewish Writing Project 