Julian Ungar-Sargon

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  • Home
  • Theological Essays
  • Healing Essays
  • Podcast
  • Poetry
  • Daf Ditty
  • Deep Dive Ditty
  • Videos
  • Publications
  • Military Service
  • Dominican University

Poems

Moving Poetry by Dr. Julian Ungar-Sargon

Etrog

jyungar October 12, 2025

Rounded at the top,

a crown of perfection —

gleaming yellow-gold,

polished by the trembling of my hands.

Here I see the dream I was meant to bear:

my ideals,

my people’s yearning made flesh in fruit,

smooth with impossible completion.

 

Then, the narrowing —

the gartel cinched around its waist,

a belt of humility,

separating breath from breath,

the sacred air above

from the profane murmur below.

It is the line I draw each morning

between prayer and practice,

between the soul’s reach

and the hunger of the body.

 

Beneath, the lower half —

rough, pocked, scarred with human failure.

Here is the residue of my unlearned holiness,

the instincts that root me

in the soil of longing.

Here I am most myself,

half-formed, half-fallen,

still bound to the upper light

by that thin, indented gartel

which whispers,

even separation is a kind of connection.

My esrog is me

And I am it

And it is in my dreams

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Julian Ungar-Sargon

This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.​