Celebrations Read Free Page A

cruelty
    Strutting and sassy
    To our inner beat
    And all the while
    Lord, how I love your smile
    You’ve freed your braids
    Gave your hair to the breeze
    It hummed like a hive
    Of busy bees
    I reached into the mass
    For the honeycomb there
    God, how I loved your hair
    You saw me bludgeoned
    By circumstance
    Injured by hate
    And lost to chance
    Legs that could be broken
    But knees that would not bend
    Oh, you loved me then
    I raked the Heavens’ belly
    With torrid screams
    I fought to turn
    Nightmares into dreams
    My protests were loud
    And brash and bold
    My, how you loved my soul
    The sun has come out
    The mists have gone
    We see in the distance
    Our long way home
    I was yours to love
    And you were always mine
    We have belonged together
    In and out of time

BEN LEAR’S
BAR MITZVAH

A N ODE TO B EN L EAR
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS B AR M ITZVAH
    To you
    in your walled city of childhood,
    the years have inched by slowly, tortoise—like
crawling,
    yet to your family and family of friends
    the time has hurried, without halting,
    without leaving enough seasons in which
    to know you, to teach you, to love you.
    You have been noted studying the Torah,
    probing the words of ancient prophets
reading,
    To many
    you have come too suddenly to the new
region of manhood.
    To your parents,
    in whose immense realm of love
    you have been clasped and claimed,
    you are still the tender-tough boy,
    yet in your face, they see already the promise
of the man you are becoming.
    To them
    you are too eager to step into the new land,
    too ready to share the responsibility
    with the citizens of your new country.
    Some of your belovedsare longing to hold you back in the safe arms
of childhood,
    where errant behavior could meet with soft
admonishment,
    where most injuries could be made better by
a mother’s kiss,
    but even now you are leaning away toward
the horizon
    with one foot raised to step forward.
    None can stop you, none can stay you.
    Please know,
    prayers lay in the road where you will plant
your feet.
    Please know
that aspirations of your family are high at
your back, and surround you entirely.
    Please know
    that great hopes of your devoted shower
you with
    ardent wishes for your being and for your
future.
    Your beloveds
    know that you are entering a nation
    where you must learn the difference
    between seeking after justice
    and lusting for revenge.
    They know also
    that you will meet those who would be kind
    if only they had the courage, and
    those who would do evil
    if only they had the opportunity.
    You will be bathed in the morning dew of
truth
    and you will drink down the brackish water of
false witness.
    Be wary, my nephew, but fear only God,
    for you have a limitless resource of powerful
love
    to evoke and call forth
    and I,
    prompt with all your primed and loving
family,
    await your summons.

VIGIL

For Luther Vandross and Barry White
    We are born in pain, then relief comes.
    We are lost in the dark, then day breaks.
    We are confused, confounded, and fearful,
    Then faith takes our hand.
    We stumble and fumble and fall,
    Then, we rise.
    Into each of our meanest nights, you
have arrived,
    Oh, Lord,
    Creator,
    To lead us away from our ignorance
    And into knowing.
    Now, we gather at your altar,
    Rich and poor, young and
    Achingly old,
    We are the housed and the homeless,
    We are the lucky,
    And the lazy.
    As if at the foot
    Of an ancient baobab tree,
    In this moment
    We gather to stand, kneel, sit, squat, and
crumple here,
    Knowing that, when the medical geniuses
    Have done their best,
    When the Nobel Prize Winners
    Have used their most powerful energy,
    We have You.
    Creator,
    We bring to You
    Our brothers, sons, fathers, uncles,
    Nephews, cousins, beloved, and friends.
    We place the body of Luther Vandross
    And the body of Barry
    White Here before You.
    They are among the best we have
    And You are all we have.
    Heal, we pray.
    Heal, we pray.
    Heal us all,
    We pray.

PRAYER

    Father Mother God, thank You for Your
presence during the hard