Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
God Pursues Me Everywhere
God pursues me everywhere,
Enmeshes me in glances,
And blinds my sightless back like flaming sun.

God, like a forest dense, pursues me.
My lips are ever tender, mute, so amazed,
So like a child lost in an ancient sacred grove.

God pursues me like a silent shudder.
I wish for tranquility and rest -- He urges; come!
And see -- how visions walk like the homeless on the streets.

My thoughts walk about like a vagrant mystery --
Walks through the world's long corridor.
At times I see God's featureless face hovering over me.

God pursues me in the streetcars and cafes
Every shining apple is my crystal sphere to see
How mysteries are born and vision came to be.

(from "Human, God's Ineffable Name")

freely rendered from the Yiddish by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi.