a poem by robert bringhurst

Kol Nidre*

Forgive me my promises. Those I have kept

and those I have broken. Forgive me

my pledges, my vows and the rest

of my boasts and concessions.

Raking my father's bones out of the long furnace, I knew

that what is is what links us. The ground

we all walk on, air we all breathe;

the rocks and trees that look down on us in all their candour -

all that remains of all that surrounded us when we were sane -

and the eyes; the hands; the silence; reciting the names

of what is in the world; divining the names

of what isn't; the wounds we inflict

to relay and mirror the wounds we receive;

and the knots we cannot undo

between father and son, daughter and mother,

mother and father, the one

God and all his believers:

the marriage made without vows

between those who have pleased

and hurt one another that deeply.

Bringhurst, Robert. "Kol Nidre" The Calling: Selected Poems 1970-1995. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1995.

* n. Judaism

1. An opening prayer recited on the eve of Yom Kippur, retroactively or preemptively declaring the annulment of all personal vows made to God in the previous or following year.
2. The melody to which such a prayer is chanted.