SELF PORTRAIT AS A POETRY BOT by Zohar Atkins

by Zohar Atkins / Thursday, 15 November 2018 / Published in Issue 14

Alumnae of the Void,
we measure our loyalty
in clicks and non-fungible
donations.

We measure our loyalty
against our guilt of never
being enough,
never opening email.

Against our guilt of never
showing up, or as we say
in today’s culture,
making ourselves visible.

Showing up, or as we say
Leaving Egypt,
meaning a world
without fanfare.

Leaving Egypt,
we are like stars
leaving daylight
to become markers of night.

We are like stars
whose arrival designates
the time of comparison
between priests and beggars.

Whose arrival is called “Creation”
and requires a red carpet
of interpretation
or no carpet at all.

And requires a red carpet
of wonder
at how such terms formed
an encyclopedia of misdirection.

Of wonder
we are but a satellite,
an off-shore account
waiting to be dissolved.

We are but a satellite
and yet are we not also a center
whose periphery is wonder?
Waiting to be dissolved

an encyclopedia of misdirection
or no carpet at all
between priests and beggars
to become markers of night

without fanfare
making ourselves visible
never opening email
who can say

we are not loyal alumnae
clicking, donating our being
to some Void
some Egypt of guilt and wonder.

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Tagged under: poem, Poetry, Zohar Atkins

About Zohar Atkins

Zohar Atkins is a rabbi, scholar, and poet. A David Hartman Center Fellow, he is the founder of Etz Hasadeh, a program for seekers that uses poetry, philosophy, and meditation to illuminate texts and ideas from Jewish tradition. He is the author of An Ethical and Theological Appropriation of Heidegger's Critique of Modernity (Palgrave, 2018) and Nineveh (Carcanet, 2019). The recipient of an Eric Gregory Award for Poetry, he holds a doctorate in Theology from Oxford and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. His poems appear in PN Review, The Oxonian Review, The Glasgow Review of Books, TYPO, New Poetries, and elsewhere.