Friday, April 18, 2008

Passover Kyrielle

[Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect put before us a kyrielle as the Monday Poetry Stretch. See the prompt for links on this form. Since Passover preparations are eating up most of my waking hours, here's what I came up with.]



Passover Kyrielle

We ask four questions on this night;
We eat and drink and then recite
the prayers that have come down to me.
We once were slaves, but now we're free.

We eat horseradish and flat bread.
Salt water stands for tears we shed.
Recline but think how we did flee.
We once were slaves and now we're free.

We drink four cups and dip food twice.
We think about the human price
paid by the closing of the Sea.
We once were slaves, though now we're free.

We gather both our kith and kin
and think of how things might have been
if Moses hadn't made his plea.
We once were slaves; we now are free.



6 comments:

Daisy said...

This is great! I don't know a lot about Passover, but this is understandable even to a gentile like me! Thanks for sharing it!

sister AE said...

Thanks, DaisyBug. There are a lot of "fours" in the Passover Seder so I tried to keep this simple so that it would fit in four stanzas.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

This is really wonderful. I think you could use it for teaching the traditions in a family or in school. You should keep passing this on and share it widely! Have you thought of places to publish? Submit it to some kid's magazine maybe - when next year comes around I bet it will be in print.

sister AE said...

Thanks, Cloudscome. Of course today I am only seeing its flaws, but with a little more polish, perhaps...

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed reading this kyrielle. I spent passover at a dear friend several years ago and this poem brought it all back. Thank you for sharing it.

sister AE said...

Thanks, Pam. I'm glad you like it.