Ros Schwartz

 

Writing Challenge #1:

Uv'tuvo m'chadeish b'chol yom tamid ma-asei v'reisheet

     And in Your goodness you daily renew creation.

 - From Yotzeir Or, in the morning liturgy.

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Zamboni

 

 

How do you get 100 Canadians off a skating rink?

You blow your whistle and say: "Would everybody clear the rink please?"

 

 

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The swirling rainbow lights lock into brilliant white

as the Zamboni hums its hourly arrival

(entrance stage right) 

gliding skillfully across the ice

tracing diminishing concentric circles

 

It cascades healing water upon the scarred surface

where now-vanished skaters

chiselled messages with their blades

 

As the water freezes

it heals the gaps

recreating the perfectly smooth untouched crystalline expanse

as it was before the skaters

wrote their dreams upon the ice

 

 

 

 

On this new year's eve celebration

our annual ritual of renewal

we usher in 2018

with puppets, skaters, balloons and fireworks

 

 

 

 

In the year that stretches ahead

we will walk across unbroken snow

speak into silence

sculpt unformed clay

scribe words onto unmarked paper

find rainbows hidden in white light

 

 

Perhaps we will reveal what already exists

hidden deep within the everyday

 

Perhaps we will create something perfectly new

 

 

 

This, our partnership with God:

 

we begin with pure unformed potential

craft our memories and lives

intermingling joy and grief

 

and then

each morning

a new page is turned

wounds healed

the slate wiped clean

and we begin again.

 

 

 And in Your goodness we daily renew creation.