Insufficient Knowledge
By Bronwyn Lea
You have to start with insufficient knowledge,
yes, this, and yes, praise be, then this,
you have to have that kind of courage.
A breath, a step, a word: it’s to your advantage
to begin. There isn’t time to wait for grace–
you have to start with insufficient knowledge.
Think of the first human to sail over the edge
of the world, or a base jumper departing an edifice:
you have to have that kind of courage.
Break your fists, your back, your brain, punch
yourself an opening. This is all there is:
you have to start with insufficient knowledge
of the heart, that higher organ, which
from time to time catches us by surprise
and we startle with the kind of courage
that will spend it all, not hold back, wage
everything, al, right away, every time, yes.
You have to love with insufficient knowledge,
you have to have that kind of courage.
© Bronwyn Lea, Mishkan HaSeder: A Passover Haggadah, CCAR Press 2021
