Years ago (2002?) a reader asked if anyone here was familiar with Kabbalistic poetry. At the time I had never heard of the term. But I found this beautiful website which displays some of the best of that genre: [www.geocities.com] />
[walking-on-fire.blogspot.com] />
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”
--Albert Einstein

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2006 03:00AM by lg.

Here's an example of this type of work:

Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2006 03:32PM by lg.

Splendor
(A mystery of Motion)
-- Liorah Chanah Elishaba Tsabrah

in between
shins tinkling along a pivoting wind spread out
blossoming layer by layer, intercalating
bytelets flaming endlessly back toward the source
yet forever forwardly inbound
with mystery in motion
one unique connection of a myriad myriads
dancing darkly like living light through the speaking text
soundlessly stringing a transmitting tradition
rebirthing every moment, ever on the way
an interesting effusion
a song of study
a probing rhythm
a curious infusion
an enigma
a cleaving melody of penetrating action

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2006 02:21PM by lg.

So ... what are the hidden, secret meanings? Superfragikabbalistic, I know, I know (before John-san says it). Almost a spoonerism!

Hugh, since I got your attention, tell me what this term means: " hagayon"
it's not in my online reference dictionaries.

The hidden meanings behind these poems, if there are any, are references from the Old Testament.


Les

To my understanding, it means "Holy" or Sacred"

Thanks, Johnny, in an earlier version of that website, Liorah, showed the passages that these poems had been based upon.


Les

I'm thinking in this contexst, the meaning is closer to holy one, or holy presence.

but this is based purely on the assumption that the word has the same root as the greek Hagio- I think it has a Hebraic origin ...I'll look

[Late Latin sānctum sānctōrum (translation of Greek to hagion tōn hagiōn, translation of Hebrew qōdeš haqqodāšîm) : sānctum, holy place + sānctōrum, genitive pl. of sānctum, holy place.]

Thanks for the info. Johnny, I had never seen the word in print before I read it in that poem. "Holy place" does fit the context/tone of the poem.

Les

No, me neither, not exactly that way, but I was familiar with Hagiography (the study of saints) and the Hagia Sophia (holy wisdom) church in Constantinople

The Dark Night of the Transits
to Saint John
By Rebekka Kenton


Sun

Active sun, far too active.
When you discharge your rage,
the weight of a thousand thunderstorms
descends upon my soul at once
but no relief.

My self is not spotless either
but flares up, burns up,
layer after layer,
until the real fuel is exposed.
Is this the truth about myself?

My celestial timekeeper!
When you have counted my days to the End
will there be a radiant supernova,
a moment of enlightenment
before I disappear
from the Wheel of my horoscope?



Full Moon

I can't sleep. The night is not safe.
There is too much light on the wrong side.
The dreaded North is revealed.
In your moving tides
the eternal ice of permafrost is rising,
the snowflakes of my ancestors now unburied.


The hidden face of my ego
is always unripe like the North side of an apple.
There is something false
about my tears reflecting this unreal light,
this indoors fountain
endlessly recycling the same waters.


What advice?

Poem by Adam Simmonds



    Understanding





    Bearded knowing, old

    men in dark rooms

    sit like grandmothers

    knitting words, turning

    over thoughts, as if

    the pages of their scrolls

    held all the secrets

    of the universe.



    Young, I watched you

    gasping, as if for breath,

    focussed prescience, knowing I

    might speak, calling me to

    come.



    Now here I am,

    filling in the crevices

    of time; reaching

    with hungry lust,

    for libraries long gone; lost

    robes of mystery

    and symbol......Where are you



    now that

    .......................I have will

    and mind to find you out? I feel, slow

    unravelling,

    your ghost presence holding

    still; aged; nodding

    heads that say

    .......................not yet, but soon.