“He [Pharaoh] summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship יהוה as you said!
           Take also your flocks and your herds, as you said, and begone! And may you bring a blessing upon me also!”
                                                                           ~Exodus, Parashah Bo, 12:35-36
1
May a fountain of blessings
flow into the cracks and recesses
of this hardened heart,
this angry, fearful, despairing heart.

May light cleanse the halls of my seeing
May deep sighs of release and relief
echo in the ear chambers of my longing.

May I sink into the knowledge
that all debts will be paid, all obligations
fulfilled and even my limitations and hesitations
blessed when I offer this small pebble

of a prayer from this hard but
humbled heart.

2
I send these softest words
into the rocky heart of my deepest
fears.

Let joy melodies like rushing waters
wear away the stone and polish
every flowing way.

When I cannot foresee outcomes,
help me not prophesy doom.

Let me go into the blind places
open to the blessings and joys
that will arrive

no matter what path I choose,
when I sense where ever
I go I am loved, and

whoever I meet is my beloved.

3
Scared stiff—this Pharaoh heart
great rock spires, red canyons dropping
out of sight—

no soft place to falling land.  May I stumble
upon a blessing even though
I’m lost on this pathless

boulder-blocked way.
May I hear its promise,
small pebble clattering down

between riven stones, and notice
sky between rock cliffs
blue-bountiful, welcoming.

May I always dwell within the mishkan
of Your voice, Yah.
So all I need to do

is lay my ear
against this sun-warmed pulsing
stone and hear.
                        1/24, 27 &28/2010-1/26/2023