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a tribute for memorial day
May 28, 2018

Psalm 9 (part 1) – A Song that Love May Endure the Life-Threatening Yoke[1]
Placed upon a Son or Daughter
א – I will give thanks with all my heart.
I will recount your wonder, forward and backwards.
I will rejoice and exalt in You. I will voice Your lofty name
ב – Backtrack the torment in me. Let this sad-mask come off at last.
ג – Get away from inner-gangs lost to misplaced judgement,
May their names be forgotten for good (Doorways[2] best unopened)
ה – Ha! There. These enemies of pure simplicity
lay in ruin, in perpetuity,
the nervous skin shed, busy city-lights fading, forgotten.
ו – And You, Y”H are hidden there, enthroned
in a humble clause, like “Yes.”
And in a just cause – haven for the helpless, fortress for the fearful.
ז – Sing for God’s sake, and feel the presence
where we gather and celebrate our stories, Your story, in song.
Remember too, the blood-curdling cry, forget not the call,
connection inspiring action.
ח – Help me heal the hate that seeps from self-afflicted isolation.
Raise me above fear before death’s door. Grace me
that I can sing your praises in the gateways
where daughters of Zion roll in joy, the hour has come.
ט – The trap set for another ensnares the setter,
arrested in the net of arrogance and judgement.
This is folly. Sela’.
י – You can help me steer clear of that tormented line of inquiry
that forgets to cede the throne of judgment,
and never forgets the hope that flows
from a humility reaching with both hands,
lifting you up, not settling into a stubborn self-reliance.
Human, all too human, in your able hands. Sela’.
FOCUS PHRASES:
Odeh b’chol libi – I give thanks with all my heart!
Celebrate in song
Cede the throne of judgment
[1] The Hebrew is unclear, here I have divided the word עלמות/Almut, into two words, עול מוות/‘Ol mavet / literally “the yoke of death [for a son]”
[2] The letter ד/dalet, meaning door, is curiously absent from the cloaked alphabetic acrostic of this psalm.



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