In the Unseeable World

In the Unseeable World

Sometimes, when a boy reaches for a ball
in his dream, his sleeping hand
claws through the empty air of this world.
And his brother, sleepless in the next bed, says,
He reaches for nothing,
it is all a dream.

Sometimes, when a man passes the window of a shul,
he sees another man swaying
and stretching his arms heavenward,

and in the unseeable world, Hashem’s
long arms reach through the eternal
water and the firmament
and His hands cleave
to the hands of the man who is praying.

And the man passing by says,
Oh, why does he waste his energy,
what does he hope to touch?

From the book G-d's Optimism by Yehoshua November