Friday 5 October 2007

Benediction to Reason (A Hymn of Confusion)

God, in His infinite wisdom,
Chose not to make sense;
God, in His infinite wisdom,
Defies the laws that we obey;
God, in His infinite wisdom,
Made logic a bridgeless void.

How, God, do You dare craft a realm of reason
for the people of Your creation
to find order and solace and comfort
and then mutate it
so that You appear an impotent father,
a cruel benefactor,
or an idle warden?

Why, God, do You give us minds of reason
that explore the form of Your creation
to order and find and conform
and then demand us
to worship something rebelling against
the limits that You imposed
when You forged us?

O God,
I was comfortable in my bed
of reason in the earth;
I was comfortable contained
in the rigid box of geometry;
I was comfortable buried
beneath the weight of evidence.

O God,
I like the linear planks
composing the base of my bed;
I like the corners’ symmetry
pairing from side to side;
I like the neat stitches
marching along the fabric edge.

I hear You knock, O Grave-robber
on the logical lid;
I heard the blade of Your shovel
overturn the stones and the grit;
You pry at the lid
but I do not know what I will find
in the open spaces
above the firmness
of soil’s history and touch.

My heart pushes
in irregular rhythm
dying blood through my body,
yet it rebels against the tomb
my life resides in
and it affects my stubborn brain.

Excavate me O God
drag my corpse from the dying grounds
steal my cadaver
from the structure of plots
take my body through the formal cemetery gate
and into your paradoxical paradise





I think that I can do better than this. Sometime soon I will try to render this into something that starts out with form and then changes to free verse. But I wanted to post something new and decided that this would have to do until then.

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