Birch Magazine
A typo transforms my cover letter
into one aimed at an editor at Birchand I find myself wondering
what kind of articles they publish there.Rebuttals of that famous Frost poem,
perhaps, from the point of viewof the trees getting swung upon.
Praise-songs penned on curled barkand sent, ironed flat, via post.
Recipes for soda and syrup.I imagine their mission statement:
giving voice to the thickets of saplingsrising slim and dark from snowy earth
heretofore considered silent, voiceless.This would be their dormant period,
reading season, manuscripts consideredcarefully before the spring rush
? that heady upswellingof sweet inspiration ? bursts forth
new pages that rattle in the wind.I could offer something for their special
Tu B?Shvat issue, a birthday songfor homes and synagogues worldwide
where we?ll celebrate another ringin every trunk, joining trees in traveling
from creation to essence, appearanceto ultimate reality,
holy roots to holy sky.
? Rachel Barenblat
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat is author of ?70 Faces,? a collection of Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011). She is a contributing editor at Zeek, a Jewish journal of thought and culture.
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