#42 Matot  (Maqam Nawa)

Maqam - a set of notes, with traditions that define the relationship between them, their patterns and expression.  A musical mode.  The Maqamat (plural) are patient, inwardly drawn, they are roomy enough for poetry. We worked the concept of the give-and-take between poetry and music.

Sticks and Staffs

Dried out inflexible the staff the stick

the exile of the partial from the whole

my nation among the nations

me from myself

the tribe –

Soul’s journey out from G*d

Soul soft and moist

inflexible and brittle

souls dried out and far away –

O divine moistness.

Souls in exile

a connection with the Source

or a sense of far-away.

Inflexible to our origins dried out

either softening to the tree

or broken off and brittle –

O relational source.

O tree of life.

James Stone Goodman - Rabbi. Poet. Awad (oud man).