—for the good Rabbi and my friends at Maimonides School
Midrash on a Sacred Encounter
When the little ones gathered at my feet
they couldn’t stop laughing every time
I spoke a poem, as if they were wild birds
and I scattered seed for their singing and singing,
singing back to my songs and stories, and they
fed me questions as old as psalms: How long
does it take to write a poem… what’s the longest
poem… who taught you poems… what’s
the oldest poem… what’s oldest
inside a poem…what is a poem
and what is not?
Then they laughed and clapped
and I bowed and felt blessed
and we went out into sunlight
and all went forth to heal the world.
Kim Stafford
Oregon Poet Laureate
November 2018