Ascent

A new poem, inspired by my now weekly drives to the valley through Laurel Canyon, the impermanence of Sukkot, and Psalm 27

The fog reached far during the night

by Sunset it burns off

herbs and pinecones, a still small breeze

heat waiting in the shadow

together with the stags

heat that crushes under feet

crackling silence

the tempting fragrance of the chaparral 

dust and sweat and laundered shirt

*

Shaded love streets, lifelines

connecting two domains

since time immemorial

people know where to traverse

from the narrows to the sun

greeted by cypress, palm and eucalyptus

on the ridge

Mulholland a karmelit

Holy mountains, hills of saints

strung like pearls around the basin and the valley

*

My singing heart sits shiva in advance

like God over the world before the flood

No photo will preserve the essence

the serenity I feel

under this ungraspable wide sky

One thing I ask

to never have to leave this canopy

to dwell in this beauty all my life

Let this be my inheritance