Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky

The Shofar Blower

The Shofar Blower The shofar blower keens a melody, An old melody to God. Above him— A sky without stars, Primordial darkness lost in darkness,156 The shofar blower keens a melody: Teki'ah, Teru'ah, Shebarim.157 The blackness158 —a wind, a wall, There is no congregation, No quorum at all. The shofar blower keens a melody, An old melody: Hallelujah. Near him, an extinguished thorn, As he stares into even blacker darkness, The shofar blower keens a melody, An old melody, And waits— The thorn shall begin to burn, A flame shall inscribe on a wall. Above him, a sky without stars, And primordial darkness, And deadly venom. But this does not interrupt,159 Does not silence the horn: TekVab, Teru'ah, Shebarim. 1945 369 nytru x m , n yVx px mix ^n aitw px tjws OXT ^xa px Ta ix§ ix DIXT M 1x3) Ta PX SWH p^ ^p ixs t?^ OXT ^XT xt? •••D^ia H "IXS xna Dyr^ p i tra ^xift;1 ' pVxs p i tra iV^sx pnx^-n px ]ix ,p-nn nynaix ^ix u r n oxn pi ^D^n p i px i^^s p-n inji Ta ^XT 05; ^x^a ]Boay^ yaxo p?i Ta ^xa p ^ xt: x c a 7 * 1 3 7 1 1 V 1940 370 ...