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Poems
Nat Lipstadt Apr 2016
Selah for Sethnicity
Nat Lipstadt
Apr 2016
Selah
~~~
is a word used seventy-four times in the bible. The meaning of the word is not known, though various interpretations are given below. It is probably an instruction on the reading of the text, something like *"stop and listen." The Amplified Bible translates selah as "pause, and think of that." Alternatively, selah may mean "forever," as it does in some places in the liturgy. Another interpretation claims that selah comes from the primary Hebrew root word salah, meaning "to hang," and by implication, as in weighing, "to measure"
for Sethnicity
~~~
what trifle these
modern words,
hurled, expelled from the
no country for an old body,
without passport or
earnestness of purpose
the yeah yeah yeah filler
of day tourists who
leave~refuse,
leave their refuse,
never mark-making,
nor even a mark of
minor distinctions
what mystery valued then in these
olden words,
of which,
there are the fewer than
precious few,
possessing
ineffable, multifarious meanings,
never wasted or with dispassion disgraced
Selah
as a young boy
parentally captive
was POW forced-marched
to synagogue daily,
then weekly,
and now,
free at last,
Oh Lord
free at last,
to go
never
now wanting immunity
for my sins
but asking only from myself
my own forgiveness,
still and well recall the
puzzlingly feeling of
Selah
"forever"
explained the perpetually tired,
older father-man,
"it means forever,"
he who was wearily forever tired from voyaging
and living in a new, stressful,
inhospitable world
carrying in a single suitcase(1)
centuries of the continental drift of
global dispersal diaspora prior,
that cannot be well remembered,
only honored in the
forever recalling
but I disdain the explanation,
as if
"forever"
would satisfy
a ne're satisfied,
irreverent, teenage curiosity
here I am
decades on,
remembering the mysterious
Selah
embracing its many personalities,
endearing now by its revealing opportunities,
and its suitability
in this,
in the the hour of
now me as the
elder father-grandfather
weary-leery,
of a man's age of aging,
the approaching visible runway,
upon which you only land
and never takeoff,
during the phasing out period
and so I reconsider
Selah
and all its variants,
seventy four times
all those elders know too well,
there was never a
forever
so you
stop and listen,
but not to your own heartbeats,
but to tue
poetic lapsing pauses,
the in betweens,
thinking on that
hope for next one Nat
taking your own measure,
the hanging up,
the weighing up
of the always imbalanced
credits and deficits,
accepting the net net
sum of
the totaling up
yet once more,
despite all,
the poet rises,
stands up,
stops to listen,
to give blessing to
you the reader
all poet's
welcomed progeny and prodigy,
hearing your crying hearts,
youngest wishes
and grinding familia of
familiar fears,
expressed so clear
in all your scripts,
pronouncing
over them,
over you
Amen ~ Selah
once again ,
one last time
telling it to God,
or anyone who'll listen,
with fervor
smiling inward
believing even more now
in the olden
specialized mysterious,
powers
of a word
that means
exactly what you meant it
to mean,
when your say
Selah*
Oct 2, 2015
~~~
is a word used seventy-four times in the bible. The meaning of the word is not known, though various interpretations are given below. It is probably an instruction on the reading of the text, something like *"stop and listen." The Amplified Bible translates selah as "pause, and think of that." Alternatively, selah may mean "forever," as it does in some places in the liturgy. Another interpretation claims that selah comes from the primary Hebrew root word salah, meaning "to hang," and by implication, as in weighing, "to measure"
for Sethnicity
~~~
what trifle these
modern words,
hurled, expelled from the
no country for an old body,
without passport or
earnestness of purpose
the yeah yeah yeah filler
of day tourists who
leave~refuse,
leave their refuse,
never mark-making,
nor even a mark of
minor distinctions
what mystery valued then in these
olden words,
of which,
there are the fewer than
precious few,
possessing
ineffable, multifarious meanings,
never wasted or with dispassion disgraced
Selah
as a young boy
parentally captive
was POW forced-marched
to synagogue daily,
then weekly,
and now,
free at last,
Oh Lord
free at last,
to go
never
now wanting immunity
for my sins
but asking only from myself
my own forgiveness,
still and well recall the
puzzlingly feeling of
Selah
"forever"
explained the perpetually tired,
older father-man,
"it means forever,"
he who was wearily forever tired from voyaging
and living in a new, stressful,
inhospitable world
carrying in a single suitcase(1)
centuries of the continental drift of
global dispersal diaspora prior,
that cannot be well remembered,
only honored in the
forever recalling
but I disdain the explanation,
as if
"forever"
would satisfy
a ne're satisfied,
irreverent, teenage curiosity
here I am
decades on,
remembering the mysterious
Selah
embracing its many personalities,
endearing now by its revealing opportunities,
and its suitability
in this,
in the the hour of
now me as the
elder father-grandfather
weary-leery,
of a man's age of aging,
the approaching visible runway,
upon which you only land
and never takeoff,
during the phasing out period
and so I reconsider
Selah
and all its variants,
seventy four times
all those elders know too well,
there was never a
forever
so you
stop and listen,
but not to your own heartbeats,
but to tue
poetic lapsing pauses,
the in betweens,
thinking on that
hope for next one Nat
taking your own measure,
the hanging up,
the weighing up
of the always imbalanced
credits and deficits,
accepting the net net
sum of
the totaling up
yet once more,
despite all,
the poet rises,
stands up,
stops to listen,
to give blessing to
you the reader
all poet's
welcomed progeny and prodigy,
hearing your crying hearts,
youngest wishes
and grinding familia of
familiar fears,
expressed so clear
in all your scripts,
pronouncing
over them,
over you
Amen ~ Selah
once again ,
one last time
telling it to God,
or anyone who'll listen,
with fervor
smiling inward
believing even more now
in the olden
specialized mysterious,
powers
of a word
that means
exactly what you meant it
to mean,
when your say
Selah*
Oct 2, 2015
a poem written and stored away from a sense of
who will get this weary wariness... but I let it go because
it was
selah time
for Sethnicity
(1). he was a Fuller Brush Man
who will get this weary wariness... but I let it go because
it was
selah time
for Sethnicity
(1). he was a Fuller Brush Man