A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community

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"Aloft" by Sharon Dolin

Aloft

       after Franz Rosenzweig

If there is no such thing as standing,

if there is only being held up,

 

then do hold me

up to see the treetops,

 

the crowns of heads,

the flights of bees.

 

Let me feel your wing-

folds at my back,

 

the graze of fins,

the clasp of hands.

 

Let me enter each

unfurling moment

 

companioned by

the seen and the unseen.

 

If this now is where

I might find you

 

as I roam the fields

as I dip into the lake

 

O raise me up, dear friends,

O invisible one, keep me aloft.

Sharon Dolin

Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Imperfect Present (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022); a prose memoir entitled Hitchcock Blonde; and two books of translation, most recently Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems by Gemma Gorga (Saturnalia Books, 2021). The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, Pushcart Prize, and Witter Bynner Fellowship, Dolin is Associate Editor of Barrow Street Press and teaches poetry in New York City. You can find out more at sharondolin.com.

 

 

Sharon Dolin