The following poem is featured in Eden Pearlstein’s poetry book, Nothing Is for Everyone, published on September 10, 2024.
Jewish Geography (Tikkun HaShem)
Everyone knows
Before a child is
Born an angel
In the womb
Lights a candle
Above their head
And teaches them
The entire Torah.
On the doorstep
Of this world
The angel taps
The child above
Their lip causing
Them to forget
And learn it
All over again
On their own.
I am not
Ashamed to
Admit that
I have
Often wondered what
In the world
This means or
Why it matters;
And so late one
Night perplexed
I was moved
To press my ear
Against my
Sleeping wife’s
Breast—and this is
What I heard:
Tiny sun
Curious star
I want to tell you
The story of
Your name
But first you must
Know that a name
Is not only a name
A name is a map
A name is a seed
A name is a path
A name is a deed
Yet to be done
In the middle of the great dream
There is a hidden garden
Where names grow on trees
The ancient one sang a secret song
To the earth and called forth the first
Name in honor of our verdant mother
Faithfully this name became
Became this fateful name
Until one day they ate a name
Off a branch of the name
That had been named by The Name
She was a planet
Pocketing names
He was a tangent
Toppling names
We were all grain
Scattered names in the wind
And so the world
Filled with names
Until we all became
A single name—
Peace
—the purpose
Of all of the names
And then we woke up.
Eden Pearlstein is a poet, performer, chronic collaborator, and cofounder of Ayin Press. Over the past two decades he has created an eclectic portfolio of audio, visual, textual, and curatorial works and projects. As an author and editor, Eden has conceptually and creatively contributed to over 50 books of contemporary Jewish spirituality, art, and literature, including the gallery catalog for In/Flux: On Influence, Inspiration, Transmission, and Transformation (with Zahar Vaks for Oretega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY); the illustrated chapbooks Taste and See: A Psychedelic Pesach Companion and Indwelling: An Earth-Based Sukkot Companion (with Madison Margolin and Jessica Tamar Deutsch); and the artbook Speechless (with Cannupa Hanska Luger for the Nevada Museum of Art). Nothing Is for Everyone is Eden’s first book of poems. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children.