Culture

You light candles

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Bruce Black

 

You light candles,
one more each night, and
watch their flames flicker
in the reflection of the window. 

You consider the miracles
you have known—

How a woman with cancer 
given two years to live
is still alive after four.

How you found love 
when you least expected it. 

How life itself 
seems like a miracle: 
The feel of sunlight’s 
warmth on your skin 
in late November.

Maybe you can see miracles only
in the light of the candles burning 
in the menorah which remind you
of the miracles that occurred long ago?

Maybe miracles beget
miracles, one leading to another, 
each miracle opening your eyes 
to the many miracles surrounding you
each day, each moment.

Bruce Black is the author of Writing Yoga (Rodmell Press/Shambhala) and editorial director of The Jewish Writing Project. He received his BA from Columbia University and his MFA from Vermont College. His poetry and personal essays have appeared in Soul-Lit, The BeZine, Poetica, Atherton Review, Elephant Journal, Blue Lyra Review, Tiferet Journal, Hevria, Jewthink, The Jewish Literary Journal, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and elsewhere. He lives in Sarasota, FL.