Reflections on Kabbalah
By Don Iannone

Have you ever been filled by words
that seem alive to you,
without anyone there to utter them,
or even anyone inside you to hear them?
Words put together in a way
that feel like a deep river,
flowing through you,
filling and emptying you simultaneously.
Words that seem to write themselves
in your many blank spaces,
that are filled with possibilities,
going far beyond the ridiculous words you use
to try to articulate what you feel.
Words that know you—
but not because they are your words,
but because they are you.
You struggle to find
where the words start and end,
but somehow you know—
they have no beginning or end.
When your struggles produce nothing,
you’re inclined to dismiss them,
but they won’t go away,
because they are you,
and that is inescapable.

Author's Note: The kabbalist path is the mystical path in Judaism. I learned some amazing things in my course on this topic this past quarter.

Reading the Word of Kabbalah
By Don Iannone

I read the words
and they jolted me
like raw lightning.
I read the words
and they moved through my veins
as life-sustaining blood.
I read the words
and they made my heart dance
and my mind go blank.
These are familiar experiences
known to me
from somewhere long ago.
A place I have been
and still am.
I know these words
and they know me.

God the Verb
By Don Iannone

God without form
only as motion
creating reality
every moment
with cessation.
No beginning.
No end.
Only the perpetual process
of being to become.
The old kabbalist said:
"Imitate your Creator
and the mystery
shall be revealed to you."
Who is he any way?
Why is he speaking to me?
He then said: "One who understands
will understand."
I'm beginning to understand.
At least I understand there is a mystery
and that it passes through us
and there is no containing it
and there are signs all over
but some I can't read.
The old man disappears
but his words linger:
"Imitate your Creator
and eventually
you will come to understanding
and understanding will come to you."