Poem for Wednesday

From 'Meditations on the Fall and Winter Holidays'
IV: Hanukkah
By Charles Reznikoff

Penniless, penniless, I have come with less and still less
to this place of my need and the lack of this hour.
That was a comforting word the prophet spoke:
Not by might nor by power but by My spirit, said the Lord;
comforting, indeed, for those who have neither might nor power --
for a blade of grass, for a reed.

The miracle, of course, was not that the oil for the sacred light --
in a little cruse -- lasted as long as they say;
but that the courage of the Maccabees lasted to this day:
let that nourish my flickering spirit.

Go swiftly in your chariot, my fellow Jew,
you who are blessed with horses;
and I will follow as best I can afoot,
bringing with me perhaps a word or two.
Speak your learned and witty discourses
and I will utter my word or two --
not by might not by power
but by Your Spirit, Lord.

--------

It was the day when I said I was going to catch up. And indeed that was my intention. It just did not happen. I only got one out of three articles done for TrekToday; I only got two out of five Chanukah presents purchased; and let's not talk about the state of the holiday cards that haven't been finished. (Tomorrow the weather is warning of high winds, so at least I have learned my lesson in one regard: I will not be going out to lunch and parking under any streetlights!)

We had dinner at my parents' house, lit the menorah (I know, hanukkiah, but my Yiddish grandparents said menorah their entire lives and I'm sticking with it, just like I pronounce a lot of Ss where my kids are learning to say Ts in prayers). One latke is plenty for me, and I had too many meatballs and too many wax chocolate coins, and am feeling rather bloated and blah. How do other people deal with December? Do you try to diet as much as possible so things won't look so bleak in January, or do you eat at all the festivities and not worry about it so you feel in January like at least you had your splurge?

Gacked from , because Star Trek showed up in the reference:

Mr. Spock defects to Zonker and your wimpy skillet.
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