I Too Stood at Sinai

     following an online art assignment i wrote out a page of exodus ( my choice of what to write ) and then turned the page upside down and continued copying exodus eighteen and half of nineteen  by writing in between the lines until letters merged and formed an unknown calligraphy

     then i superimposed a large hebrew aleph—a soundless letter—on top and added a light red wash to have it stand apart from the script letters 

     i posted it on the art group’s facebook page just after a page of shakespeare’s sonnets 

    the act of copying began by looking for something long enough and  turned into a meditation upon the words, a connection that drew me into the story, that set me down in another place and time until i became part of those who were in the wilderness—the more i copied and the slower i wrote the greater my sense of being brought into a holy place

     but i am not a sofer stam, a scribe of the torah, nor do i write on parchment, nor do i use a turkey feather, nor do i know how to create a crown to embellish some of the letters, nor do i test my pilot falcon pen by writing out the word amalek before i begin writing—i am just a wanderer in this open and holy space