Witnessed Words: Selah

Witnessed Words: 

"Selah"

People say a picture is worth a thousand words. I happen to disagree (obviously, I'm a writer). But I do think there is something powerful about the combination of words and images, which is why poet Billy Collins allowed his poetry to be animated (worth taking a look at). I've often paired prose and photography, but never poetry and photography. This series, "Witnessed Words," is just me brainstorming how to meld these mediums in my own way.


I'll begin the series with the word "Selah", which is often used in the Psalms. It is an ambiguous term, and much has been written about it by scholars. For me, selah means "may the ears hear and the eyes see." It means "stop and listen - really listen - to this song"...

 ~

On this, first morning of my life, 

hosannas are not enough.

I walk and walk, 

up streets with Jewish names,

down streets with Arab names –

All in celebration of great poets 

or killers. 

Men who were both poets and killers.

May my pen draw blood and pour wine.

I walk through old monuments, 

tombs of alabaster, car soot.

Slogans half hid 

behind green bombs of melon,

grenades of black and purple grapes.

In the end, who will history anoint? 

I forget who was Isaac, who Ishmael.

I walk and walk, 

forgetting my own language, my alphabet, 

the one carried by Phoenicians 

from port to port –

trading letters aleph bet 

that were rounded like stones 

by a lapidist alif ba 

and passed from mouth to mouth 

until they lost all but essence a b 

and continue to be worn and smoothed, 

until, as jewels,

only their memory is left –

as I limp through harbors, 

the bilge of refugees -

in this, last moment of the day, 

when the sky burns purple 

and the ocean breaks black,

when the streetlamps tremble and, 

all around, 

the noise of guns and worship –


Selah. Enough.