Song Poem by gershon hepner

The song that Moses sang about the Sea
relates the fate of rider and the horse
God caused to fall, while dry upon the lee
the Israelites maintained a steady course.
He sang it without instruments, his voice
pure a capella, no accompaniment;
the singing prophet hardly had a choice––
there was no orchestra that God had sent.

His sister Miriam danced and brought out tumbrels
and put to music words her brother wrote,
then as he heard the clashing of the cymbals
he dreamed he saw the words he'd written float
above the Reed Sea rising to the sky,
far higher than his verses had ascended,
and knew her music was the reason why,
quite heavenly the place to which she sent it.

“Oh, who is like you, Lord? ” they sang together,
his words, her music in a symbiosis
that made the Israelites all wonder whether
the resonance was Miriam’s or Moses’,
the prophetess the leader or her brother,
whereas it came from both of them, of course,
because in song they needed one another,
united more than rider and the horse.


\7/8/98,3/23/06