'Obscure as That Heaven of the Jews'

By Robert Pinsky

This article appeared in the December 16, 2002 edition of The Nation.

November 26, 2002

In the rabbi's parable a lame one climbs
Onto a blind one's shoulders and together
They take the fruit of the garden of the Lord.

O body the blind one, O soul the lame one.
Soul that is never purely the soul, thank God.
The body purely the body only in Death.

Barney Katz, Puritan mullah in the sixth grade,
Scowled at me O Little Town when I sang
The carols, and Robert you won't go to Heaven.

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