Altar Alter

She slips into a sacristy
Between here and there
And you and I
Where sadness is sacrificed,
Sanitized and shelved
Within a borrowed monstrance
For all and none
Or perhaps polite company
Whispering words to mollify
Her cry of "Atah Adonai"

Reviews

[Eilis]

Hi, Joli. Whenever I read your poems I feel I’m entering a scene in a movie. Your works are so visual and atmospheric that I often get lost in that quality and feel I’m a wandering ghost among the actions. Getting to watch the story unfold without being part of it.

I feel a tension here between the sacred and modern sensibilities. Our fear of encountering sincerity or a spiritual movement that challenges our sanitized vision of the world. Or perhaps our need for a safe spirituality that does not challenge us. But in your poetry I like that I always encounter the contradictions and messiness of what defines the human experience alongside beauty and honesty and fearlessness. I really enjoy that.