Poetry by Sally Churgel

The Pandemic Speaks

You called, I came
When the ineffable nameless one
opened a space within itself
I was formed
from anguish and cries for
Peace and Unity

What? You thought it would be easy?
That I’d arrive in a chariot
with an embossed linen decree
I would announce, You all Behave,
and all the swords and assault rifles
would be laid down and all
would behave?

Instead like a global tsunami
my wave of energy spreads across
your emerald and sapphire globe
I do not pick and choose
who or where I’ll infect
Like pollen in the wind I
settle where I fall

Bringing consequence
I mean no harm
nor punishment nor retribution
Without anger or remorse
I move, I land, I move on
Intending only to spread a seed of
common purpose and
to serve a greater good

I was there when the frogs and locusts
descended upon Egypt
bringing freedom to the Israelite slaves
at a high price for those who remained
The cost now has been dear and terrifying
This time shared among all humankind

Yet with freedom available for all
You who are enslaved by digital technology
unplugged from your daily routine
find abundant new distractions
as technology becomes potential ally
Unexpected connections forged
Borders of countries drop away

I’m an organizer who commands
humanity to empty your closets
Carelessly shoved into the back corners
your broken promises
Now laid bare in the sunlight
Cobwebs gleaming

Chaos abounds
before the sift and sort of
all the hidden debris
A lifetime and millennium of
greed and injustice and hate
to be acknowledged, accepted and
Atoned

A mirror of consciousness
I have compelled you to look inward
To ask is this the life I want?
Do I love this home, this job, this family,
Others, myself?

You have the chance now to restock
the closets with all you have learned
about collective agreement and sacrifice,
to reset the consciousness of the world

There is no time for you to waste
on hope or despair
This is a time of acceptance and alignment
collaboration and compassion

It’s up to you now to have grown from
the trial I have brought
Acknowledge the reset or don’t
It has happened regardless of your awareness

I will leave as the plagues left Egypt
When your own stiff neck has softened
When you accept the Other
in the all the lands
And the unknown unloved Other within

The Women's Torah Speaks

On the occasion of the visit of the Kadima Women's Torah
to Congregation Ner Shalom
February 25, 2012

In my beginning
Was the scribe’s blessing
As she held the quill
Poised for one moment in
Midflight over my void
I waited
Pregnant with anticipation

Then the letter
Beit
(Oy, the letters)
304,805 letters (give or take none)
Written into the flesh of my parchment
Each letter formed with such kavanah
One loving straight mark and sinewy curve at a time

Bereshit
Then the words
Six women’s Assyrian calligraphy
Filled my parchment
Forty two lines of letters
Dance on each page
Not one touching
Distinct yet connected
Like my human readers

Oh I am not flesh and blood like they but
I am very much alive with
God’s love and mitzvot

Can you see?
Each letter is illuminated by YHWH
Like a planet revolving around her star
Each word is a solar system of meaning
Each sentence is a galaxy
Each illumed portion
Is a universe expanding
Beyond time and comprehension

Each expansive word
Reveals depths of lust and longing
Forgery and forgiveness, fear and fortitude

Oh, and those stories
They split my heart open like
Hagar’s – saying goodbye to
Ishmael in the desert of Beersheba
Still, I yearn to rejoice like the Israelites with
Miriam’s tambourines after the sea is split

I wish you could see what I see
When you chant the stories
The words rise from me
A cacophony of color
The crimson of blood and persimmons
White dove words
The desert’s tans and browns
Fringe’s blue threads
Green hills of the Promised Land
Violet prayers

The brilliance of these colors
Ascends to heaven delighting Shekhinah
Who kisses them back to Earth
A mist of Divine love
Descends upon you
A fertilizer for the mind
A shofar to the ears
A balm for your heart
And a connector for your soul

Pulse Night Club Orlando, FL 6/12/16, 1:49 am

I am Xavier, I am Juan, I am Enrique
You are Amanda, Frankie and Angel
We are Mercedes, Christopher and Luis
We are 6 degrees of separation
Which means there is no separation

If I could have been there at 1:49 am
I would have taken each person by the hand
Led them outside said, Look at those stars
Go home now - be safe

If I could have been there at 12:49 am
I would have kept Omar Mateen
From entering
Instead I’d take his hand
Say go home, go home
To your heart
Go home to your humanity
There you can find safety
There you will find you are not separate

I would, if I could, turn his hate into tears
I would say the distance between
Your dreams and my longing is
The distance between
Each heartbeat
I would say that we are all us
There is no you and them
Only the disconnections
of you/them in your own heart

It’s the truth that hurts the most
If I had been there at 1:49 am
I could not have done a thing

Nor could God
God gave us choice and will
We choose what we will
God says choose life
Choose life

This night
God cries with us
And asks us to remember
They are us

Choose love
Choose life

Cosmic Dust

For Pesach
April 7, 2012

I am God's particles
Cosmic dust once deposited
On desert sand
Kicked up by pharaoh’s guards
Spit onto slaves
Exhaled in sweat
Inhaled in anguish
Exhaled in tears
Evaporated into summer clouds
Rained on winter seas
Hitchhiked on slave ships
Inhaled by shackled men
Exhaled on cotton fields
Spun into cotton strands
Shipped north
Woven into dresses
Uniforms of working poor
Cut and patched into quilts
One lay innocently
On my marriage bed
He kept the quilt
I kept my freedom
For joy and self-respect
Prayers held vigilantly
Face lifted
In continual appeal
To God's particles
In cosmic dust

Nova in the Night Sky

The river and I are lovers.
We are always together
Separate, but not apart.

The river is tender and temperamental.
It hurls me towards ragged rocks and snags,
and just at the moment of impact
sweeps me away,
toward our mutual destiny.

I come to the edge and I am tossed down.
I fall and I fall until
I feel there is no reprieve.
I hit the water and
fall farther down.
Sucked into a swirling vortex
I spin and I spin
until I do not know
where I am going
or who I am.

And then
I am spit out
into the cool sweet air.
I float, empty,
forever it seems,
until the morning light warms the water.

The river and I are lovers.
It terrifies me
and fills me with such great joy.
It holds me in tender arms
until undulating waves rock and bounce me.
Wave after wave
until I am filled with such heat
that my heart pounds
my head swells
my body bursts
and I become Nova
in night sky.

I fall back upon
the body of the river
spark by spark by spark
until, the river and I
are one.