By Paul Raboff

Come With Me

                   Miriam  Dan
                   During The Bombing of Dresden
                   13-15 Feb. 1945

“Come with me.
 I can help you.
 God is with me.”

Each instant 
Is the door
Into eternity.
No matter what
The circumstance,
Objects and creatures
Found at that place –
It is through them
That you enter.
At the end
Of the passage
The simple altar
The chalice and bread.
It’s for you
The waiting offer.
You are the son
You are the daughter
Of the God.

_____________________________________________

 Henri de Motherlant
                 “One never says everything
                   not even to a stone.”

Never expect a stone to hear
What might find crevices and fracture.

You never can say everything
Like you have been attempting

To say to the stone-cased heart.
Now it is the time to write.

It makes no sound but hurts
The hardened muscle and alerts

Down to the wakened interior
With the stylus of an engraver

That into the walls scores
Things not traced on the ear.

_____________________________________________

Cake

Best to eat a cake
When the particles
Stay together moist
And soft with taste.
Dry they separate,
Air creeps around each
Forming protective
Brittle capsules.

_____________________________________________

Found In a Cask

You don’t have to wait
Two thousand years
And labor dangerously
To discover my scrolls.
They are here now, written
And extend before and beyond
Two thousand years
Unless you need
The difficulties of discovery
In order to  believe them.

_____________________________________________

Pomegranate

The split pomegranate
Signifies a great break.
Meaning, what makes it
A great break,
And calling it
A split pomegranate
Is in the nature
Of what is between
The two halves.

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Paul Raboff writes about himself, “After college in the USA studying economics and art in the USA, I received the understanding that I should immigrate to Israel, for spiritual reasons. Settled outside Jerusalem in the village of Ein Karem, set up and ran an art and design studio with a small community of like-minded people where I also continued writing and publishing. Recently moved to Jerusalem where I continue the same activities and look forward to the Kingdom of Heaven.”