Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Art that Rabbi Andrea London Inspired


On Rising

by Dina Elenbogen


Rest your head on sacred stone

Awaken to the faces of angels

Wrestle your way to a new name

A house with veiled windows


Awaken to the faces of angels

Whisper your way to abandoned air

A house with veiled windows

Where sparrows land and ascend


Whisper your way to abandoned air

Language rises, a mist of flying geese

Sparrows land and ascend

Take the names of angels


Language rises, a mist of flying geese

In the paths of mother birds

Who take the names of angels

Before they reappear


In the shadows of mother birds

Who fly beyond broken clouds

Before they reappear

On ladders to open windows


Who fly beyond broken clouds

Land in a house of worship

On ladders to open windows

Between words and the unspoken


Land in a house of worship

Where we come face to face

Between words and the unspoken

Rest our heads on sacred stone.


The following snippets are taken from Dina Elenbogen’s words describing the inspiration behind her poem and Jane Weintraub’s sculpture created for Rabbi London’s recent installation.

“On Rising is a pantoum, a Malaysian form, popularized by French poets, where the second and forth lines of one stanza become the first and third of the next. The first line becomes the last line of the poem, though slightly altered. I like the momentum that this form offers and hoped the patterns would speak to Andrea’s love of numbers and puzzles. I sent a draft to Jane and watched her amazing sculpture grow out of it.

… The first image that came to me was that of rising to a new place. Along with our rabbi and this momentous occasion, I thought first of our patriarchs Moses and Abraham and their moments of rising and setting forth. The first draft of my poem was filled with shadows of these patriarchs as well as images of clouds, stones and Biblical birds.”

Finally and most significantly, I went back and read about Jacob’s dream of the angels as well as other Jacob moments in Genesis and realized that he would be the central patriarch of the poem and that Moses and Abraham could rise and wander elsewhere. I liked that Jacob was our third patriarch ( and our parsha of installation Shabbat) and Andrea our third Senior rabbi.

… As the poem progressed, Jacob’s presence faded into the background but he remained a central force, particularly in the opening line that echoes Jacob falling asleep on a stone before he awoke to angels. In the last line of the poem the “you” shifts to “we,” from the leader to the people, from the rabbi to the entire congregation …The poem continued to go through many drafts but I had to be careful; something as simple as changing sparrows to geese could throw off an entire sculpture. I kept the central images but the language continued to shift until finally and fortunately, Jane set it in stone.

3 comments:

Susan E. Fisher said...

Fabulous- Thank you so much for this posting, highlighting these moving works.

Larry Kaufman said...

While applauding the eloquent verbal message, the visual art that emerged, and the affection that inspired both, I have to take a moment (as did Dina) to comment on the verse form. I had not been familiar with the pantoum before, and I am blown away by the skill needed to make one happen. A true tour de force!

DawnBB said...

As always, I am astounded by the talent abounding within our Beth Emet community. From artists, to poets, to scholars and more, I am blessed to be surrounded by these people as I continue my Jewish journey each day.