Hava Nashira Kavana 2021

These poems are offered free for your enjoyment. If you use them as part of an event, meeting, educational or liturgical setting, please consider tipping the author.

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Come let us sing
We come from every corner
We come eager to know each other’s corners
We come from new voices and old
We come from old voices that have gotten older
We come with new voices that were too young to be here
when the whole thing started and now, here they are
out proud and loud.

We come together to sing
as our ones and zeroes are turned into harmony
across these screens, not the way our ears and arms would have wanted
but at least the year of not having to wear pants extends a little

Whether it’s your first Hava Nashira or your seventy-fifth
You belong here in this electronic mess
Come let your soul get messy with us.

I remember what Moses said at the first Hava Nashira
You remember, you were there, in the shadow of the mountain
singing and waiting.

Moses said “Don’t hit the rock, but if you do, at least do it on the 2/4 (not the 1/3)
I’ve been assured by people more musically knowledgeable than I, that that’s hilarious.
Hit the rock with rhythm
We come with rhythm

We come with water flowing out of our rock
We come as fluid as it gets

We come aching to hear acres of songs in C Sharp minor
and wildly curious about new fangled melodies in major keys

We come wondering how to take a smidgen of what we’re about to share
back to the hungry hearts we see every day
We come knowing they may not know how hungry they are.

We come to learn and lift
We come to be lifted.
We come to heal

We come to farm the ground with our tears
so this harvest of joy can get us through another year.

Come let us lift
Come let us learn
Come let us love
Come let us heal
Come let us weep
Come let us sing

These poems are offered free for your enjoyment. If you use them as part of an event, meeting, educational or liturgical setting, please consider tipping the author.

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