Pandemic (a poem)

ADL Blog - Pandemic_poem

By Lynn Ungar (11 March 2020)

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

 


To learn more about Lynn Ungar on her website: http://www.lynnungar.com/

5 comments

Marilyn weininger
 

i love the suggestion that we reach out with our hearts and not our hands and with our words act in love

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Mary Robertson
 

"Give up for awhile on making the world different than it is." It is safe to love and accept the world as it is now, and now. 

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Theresa Crabtree
 

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

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great hen
 

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Rev. Dr. Dallas Teague
 

My mission of peace #ThinkLoveFirst 

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