Hanukkah Night #3: Music & Poetry

Tonight we light the 3rd candle for Hanukkah. Each night we are responding to a different question related to how we bring light into the world.

Our question tonight is:

What 3 musicians, poets, or artists inspire you?

This past year has been challenging, as we have continued to live in the unknown. Seeking inspiration is one way to bring light into our lives and to lift us up when times are hard.

When I am in need of inspiration or a reminder of all that is good, I search for music and poetry. This past year, I have been blessed with finding so many that it is difficult to name just three.

I hope you will add your three favorites in the comments.  Here are mine:

 1) Joey Weisenberg and Hadar’s Rising Song Institute

Joey is a leader in the Jewish music universe. He plays multiple instruments, is a gifted composer, and has brought his own unique and inspirational Torah to singing together in community.  In addition, he has mentored the best and brightest Jewish musicians who are bringing enormous light to our spaces. Each week, Joey and his collaborators create a playlist related to the Torah portion or holiday. You can find Joey on Facebook, or sign up for his newsletter at his website.  Here is one of my favorite pieces by him:

 

 

2) Andrew Gibson is a stunning spoken and written-word poet.

The first time I heard her was at the end of 2020 (that horrible year…) when she spoke her poem The Year of No Grudges. I found myself in tears. Andrea has an uncanny ability to capture the ineffable with words – feelings just below the surface that she brings to light. I am savoring her new book of poetry, You Better Be Lightning. You can find her on Facebook here.

 

3) Billy Collins has the ability to write poems that are laugh out loud funny and deeply touching. I love his poem “Directions”

Directions

You know the brick path in back of the house,
the one you see from the kitchen window,
the one that bends around the far end of the garden
where all the yellow primroses are?
And you know how if you leave the path
and walk up into the woods you come
to a heap of rocks, probably pushed
down during the horrors of the Ice Age,
and a grove of tall hemlocks, dark green now
against the light-brown fallen leaves?
And farther on, you know
the small footbridge with the broken railing
and if you go beyond that you arrive
at the bottom of that sheep’s head hill?
Well, if you start climbing, and you
might have to grab hold of a sapling
when the going gets steep,
you will eventually come to a long stone
ridge with a border of pine trees
which is as high as you can go
and a good enough place to stop.

The best time is late afternoon
when the sun strobes through
the columns of trees as you are hiking up,
and when you find an agreeable rock
to sit on, you will be able to see
the light pouring down into the woods
and breaking into the shapes and tones
of things and you will hear nothing
but a sprig of birdsong or the leafy
falling of a cone or nut through the trees,
and if this is your day you might even
spot a hare or feel the wing-beats of geese
driving overhead toward some destination.

But it is hard to speak of these things
how the voices of light enter the body
and begin to recite their stories
how the earth holds us painfully against
its breast made of humus and brambles
how we who will soon be gone regard
the entities that continue to return
greener than ever, spring water flowing
through a meadow and the shadows of clouds
passing over the hills and the ground
where we stand in the tremble of thought
taking the vast outside into ourselves.

Still, let me know before you set out.
Come knock on my door
and I will walk with you as far as the garden
with one hand on your shoulder.
I will even watch after you and not turn back
to the house until you disappear
into the crowd of maple and ash,
heading up toward the hill,
piercing the ground with your stick

– Billy Collins, Sailing Around the Room

*** Honorable mention to Prince, whose rendition of “A Case of You” moved me deeply.

Now it’s your turn. What 3 musicians, poets, or artists have inspired you this year?

One candle has the power to light up the darkness. One person has the power to light up our lives.

— I’ll be posting a new question each day with a photo of our precious #Bo, our Labradoodle. For my favorite potato latkes recipe click here.  For the Chanukah candle blessings, click here.

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