by Joe Tradii (Nine Mile Falls, WA)
Sometimes
during services
my mind begins to wander
away from the prayers on the page.
I try
to shepherd it back,
but my focus only desires
to roam freely upon the current.
Closing
my eyes, I still my voice.
It feels good to be carried aloft
by other’s prayers as I bounce along.
Enveloped
by the flow of voices
united in prayer, they convey
me toward a singular belonging.
Comforted,
sometimes enraptured,
I emerge from my meditations
around the time of the closing Aleinu.
Refreshed
as if immersed
in a mikvah of sound,
my intent offered in feelings, not words.
Joe Tradii is an award-winning copywriter and published author and poet. His works have appeared in Dulcet Literary Journal, Hevria, The Réapparition Journal, and The Beautiful Space. He’s taught classes on Jewish poetry and once dozed off during an all-night Shavuot teach-in. Joe lives in the Pacific Northwest where he enjoys the turning of the seasons.
The Jewish Writing Project 