Month: February 2019

The Rabbi’s Answer

/ Korin Thomas / Leave a comment

Conversation on Loon Lake, Alaska, night, Rabbi Shulman having just climbed out of the cold waters of the lake into the fishing boat:

Joel: “Rabbi, what are you doing here?”
Rabbi Shulman: “You go where the search takes you.”
Joel: “What’s it like down there?”
Rabbi Shulman: “It’s dark, Joel.  It’s dark and it’s deep.”

What is out there when it is dark and deep
where we come from, where we sleep?

I see it outside my night window
hear the flailing of winter winds
as shadows and ghosts who won’t
make themselves known
except I quit my warm home
its lights and human comforts
to go out where I can hear
the Spirit’s sensual call, feel
its chill breath on my skin
dive into deep baptismal waters
be born again from out of a dark womb.

Portland, Oregon – February 28, 2019

My opening lines are from a 1994 Northern Exposure episode titled “A Fish Story,” spoken by characters Rabbi Alan Shulman and Dr. Joel Fleishman.

Seeing through Fog

/ Korin Thomas / 2 Comments

Pacific northwest winter mornings
shrouded in fog – cold, dense, dripping
from evergreen branches, fir and cedar,
sifting through blurred spaces and still swirls.

I see what is out there in the reaches
beyond the gray shadows laying
silent in the movement of days gone
away, lost in memory, shaken
awakened from the depths of slumber.

As a child I lay in bed
listening for the sound of trains
passing in the night; in the darkness
to the deep and resonant sound
from across the bay, of a foghorn
wakening the night, putting me to sleep
as if it were my own mother
coming to calm the terrors of my night.

Portland, Oregon – February 19, 2019