What does it mean? What does it really mean? Words are spoken and I wonder what they mean What they really mean? "Jerusalem, the Holy City" What is a "Holy City? The Temple was built in Jerusalem A combination of engineering, Art and actual memory Make a Holy City? And that was so long ago.... And who remembers things of even yesterday? "There arose a new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph" There arose a new generation who knew not Hitler Who remembers? Who wants to remember? And why the Temple of all things? Archaic Outlived Who would now go up BY FOOT? Goers up by foot A hagira on slow asses Dropping waste along the way, Sleeping in nooks and crannies of the hills Being absorbed by and absorbing The earth At earth's own pace A growing together of soil and sweat Embraced by the silence of the dawning sun And the setting moon Broken by the bray of donkeys The moos of cows The yodel of the shepherd The bell of the camel The tweet of the bird The fall of the leaf Step after step On the soft sands of the valleys On the hard stone of the precipice Who knows what they thought As they trudged Without words what they felt As they trudged Towards the city called Holy Because the Temple was there And God resided therein Preparing themselves in the very motion of walking The effort itself a homage The design, an act transcendental The "pack" on their backs A gift of their "best" to their God One young Bullock One ram Seven he-lambs of the first year Without blemish Censored Only in its perfection Fed with choicest oats The greenest greens Sheltered Pampered Brushed Pure without stain A gift of life to God Called "sacrifice" Because of his father's father, going back to the beginning for Blessings received Blessings withheld Blessings desired Blessings rejected Because of himself, believing and being, without definition A Jew in all things In all things a Jew With his own mystic past His life to be lived in a peculiar way Meaning special Meaning apart His own divine law Divine meaning greater than time, greater than space Its purpose greater than knowledge received Carried on Greater than change Rubbing against fashion Sanding against philosophies Abrading against religions Polished against centuries. Refined to an exquisite nicety of custom, rule and way of life A mixture of History and Eternity Subtle giant against oblivion.