MORNING MINYAN

A quorum of small black birds
has settled on the tree outside my window:
ten of them, enough to pray
the most sacred prayers.
Whom do they beseech,
for what do they pray
with their too-toos and dea-dee-dees.
Do they ask for grace?
Cannot be. They already have it.
Do they seek forgiveness? For what?
They cannot help but do what birds do.
Do they need healing?
Perhaps one of them has broken a wing?
Or are they singing the praises of the Creator?
Of the creation?
Of the many ilks and varieties of birds?

I would like to stay and find out
but I have no time this morning.
No time no time no time no time chants my species.

Dit-dit-dit, dit-dit-dit, dit-dit-dit-dit
cry the birds as they fly away.

--Marcia Falk

Berklee’s poetry Walk was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The current sign features a poem by the American poet, painter and translator Marcia Falk (1946). Falk, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family, studied at Stanford University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lives in Berkeley.
The Jewish background is expressed in many of her songs, such as the current song - Minyan - a group of 10 men (over the age of 13) who gather for a mitzvah (mainly a prayer).