The Evolution of Seder Art

The thought of a passover seder
And my preoccupation with the symbolics
Has gotten me to thinking about creating
Something that breathes light through color
To illuminate those special things:

The lamb shank bone, the egg, the parley,
the bitter herbs, the salt water, the charoset.

It started as a window mandala
That looked something like a huge bubble wand
Poised for someone’s breath and
Shimmering with color –
A stained glass window, so to speak.

But then I realized that by the time we celebrate
The sun will have set and the window will be dark.

So the bubble popped and morphed itself
Into small-plate-sized plexiglass disks
That rolled down the middle of the table
Stopping like frisbees suspended in flight
At appropriate places.

But how would they stand up and
Not just flop into someone’s matzoh ball soup?
Half an apple with a slit in the top?

The disks were already in motion again
Joining up in threes to ring-around-the-rosie
With a candle in the middle. This would solve
The problems of stability and light and
Even double as the table centerpieces.

So how do we make them? Sounds so simple
Just 7" disks of plexiglass. But nobody has them
And the price is outrageous until I find Jose
At Home Depot who will cut anything I want and
Seems delighted that I can speak to him in Spanish!

And how do we decorate them? An art store says
The answer is acrylic paint. What about a collage of
Tissue paper in the colors of the rainbow? Just cut out
The shapes and stick them on with that great card glue.
Anything that lets light through will do just fine.

Who will make this happen? Anyone who wants to
Create and experiment. Anyone who loves color and light.
Anyone who wants to ponder how those things came to be
The special symbols of this special holiday
Which marks the Jews passage out of Egypt so long ago...