You must prepare to carry nothing
where you walk,

a God who cannot be seen,
a name you cannot speak—

therefore gather
the most precious of what you have,

and build me something heavy you can carry,
heavy as you want.

I will be weightless in it,

an idea, a promise,
among you, within you—

I will be unbearable. You can bear it.

Over and over you will pick it up
and set it down,

and as you wander
you will lose what you brought forth,

the ark will collapse in your hands,
the stones of the law will break.

Then you will carry me in your minds,
in your mouths—

unbearable as you want. You can bear it.

Terumah, Exodus 25:1–27:19

Dan Bellm’s latest collection of poems, Practice, is subtitled, “A Book of Midrash,” which he describes as “an ancient Jewish form of biblical interpretation . . . reimagining familiar stories, contemplating their strangeness, and telling the untold parts.” Bellm notes that the words kavod (glory) and kaved (heavy) share the same root. “The Weight” is reprinted by permission of Sixteen Rivers Press © 2008 by Dan Bellm.