Sukkot seems less popular among poets than Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. But Rabbi Rachel Barenblat’s Open My Lips: Poems and Prayers has quite comprehensive holiday coverage, also including work about Hoshanna Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
Here is a poem about Hoshanna Rabbah, and we’re also saving something for our parsha series…
Hoshanna Rabbah Prayer
by Rachel Barenblat
My footsteps across
this patch of earth’s scalp
release the scent of thyme.
Even in the rain
the squirrels have been busy
denuding the corncobs.
The wind has dangled
my autumn garlands. I untangle
them one last time.
Every day the sukkah becomes
more of a sketch of itself.
The canvas walls dip
and drape, the cornstalks
wither, revealing more
of the variegated sky.
Today we ask: God, please save
this ark and all that it holds.
Today the penultimate taste
of honey on our bread.
Today we beat willow branches
until the leaves fall.
The end of this long walk
through fasts and feasts:
we’re footsore, hearts weary
from pumping emotion. We yearn
to burrow into the soil
and close our eyes. We won’t know
what’s been planted in us
until the sting of horseradish
pulls us forth into freedom.
You can also buy it from:
(Associate links)
