Postscript to the Garden: Knowledge [1]

By Rabbi Corinne Copnick

No temptress made me taste forbidden fruit,

I who bareheaded looked God in the eye

was singly my own seducer.

Seven veils vainly cover

my belly’s earthworm’s dance.

Are some things better left unknown?

Snaked to the ground,

I hide my vision, stop my ears,

my mouth fills dumbly with dust.

Who bid me sleuth mystery

prematurely face to face

before the final encounter?

God of wrath, vowed

I have eaten your anger.

Help me rise to receive your love.

©️Corinne Copnick Spiegel, Montreal, 1981; Los Angeles, 2017.

[1] “Knowledge” originally appeared in Embrace/Etreinte: A Love Story in Poetry (Une Poeme d’Amour) by Corinne Copnick Spiegel. (Montreal: Editions Guy Maheux, 1981), 45. “Embrace/Etreinte is ” a volume of bilingual (English/French) poems, published at a volatile time in Quebec and dedicated to people of both French and English cultures. “Embrace/Etreinte,” can be found occasionally on rare book sites. The poem, “Knowledge, was subsequently published in “Bitterroot,” ed. Menke Katz (N.Y., ca. 1981) an international poetry magazine (1962-1991) showcasing poets with mystical reach.