DOUG NATHAN



THE RABBIS DEBATE



The rabbis debate God.
Their black coat logic,
pressed white shirts, yellowing collars.
Each of them still competing with Moses for his bread.
They sit at the table, grave with meaning,
stroking their laws with rhetoric, full-voiced
to win silent nods
say the unswayable
speak His intentions.
If nothing else, the act alone is significant.

I enter the room to be with God anew --
to fashion eyes like those of a child spinning
on his hands and knees
careless of carpet burns
and his fallen yamika,
amusing himself with a new perspective
of all the footwear in that room.

And the sounds of children playing outside!
I learn as much about God from them
as I do hearing those learned words.
Not to slander the Rabbis
but to emphasize we are gifted
in the art of complications.


© 1995, Doug Nathan


Doug Nathan teaches at Northwest College of Art and freelances as a technical writer, journalist and corporate poet. His company, Beyond Words, uses poetry as a motivational tool for team building and diversity training in business and corporate settings. His first book of poetry is In The Jar Of Our Senses (1996).