Poems by Rachel Kaufman
For an old fever
———–after Gittin 67b
bring a black hen and tear her lengthwise
and widthwise and shave the sufferer’s head
down the middle and place the hen upon it
and leave her upon her until they are joined
together by the blood. And let her descend
into the water and let her stand
in the water up to her neck until the world
appears faint for her, and let her submerge
and emerge and sit and rest. And if she is unable
to undergo this process, let her eat leeks, the dark
parts and the light, and descend and stand in the water
up to her neck until the world faints for her,
and let her submerge and emerge
and sit, and let the fainted world hold her
in Her palms, open and wide, and let the sun
pat her dry in every warm place and warming
taste and when the world faints again,
bring her to its edge and fold her right over.
Holy (Kedusha)
———-after Isaiah 6:1-3 & Tur Orach Chayim 125
How porous are
—-our angels?
How do they travel and
—-what do they contain?
When heaven crosses
—-into earth
when earth crosses
—-into heaven
where do we place
—-our gaze?
The angels shield
—-their faces
from God; the angels
—-shield their bodies.
The angels rise
—-on their wings
so that we will rise
—-on our feet, imitating triumph.
Where do we place
—-our sighs and
where do we place
—-our bodies? Do not
look up from the words,
—-take care to not look
at the body. Out of bed,
—-we hide our bodies
from each other. Outside the Temple,
—-the angels hide their bodies
from God’s gaze. God
—-does not need to
gaze. I do not need
—-to gaze upon you—
your body is a gaze
—-behind my eyes. I rise
on my toes and
—-holy, holy, holy
this presence fills the earth.
Rachel Kaufman is a poet, teacher, and PhD candidate in Latin American and Jewish History at UCLA. Her work explores diasporic memory and argues for the power of poetry as historical method. Author of poetry collection, Many to Remember (2021), her work has appeared on poets.org and in The Georgia Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Los Angeles Review of Books, Rethinking History, Colonial Latin American Review, and elsewhere. She was a Helene Wurlitzer poet-in-residence, a Willapa Bay AiR poet-in-residence, and a Fulbright-Hays Scholar. See rachel-kaufman.com.
Table of Contents for A Formal Feeling