"Life is simple when observed dispassionately. Absent implications, absent fears, hopes, or dreams, it follows a very basic course of metabolizing and procreating, until eventually time runs out and it's over. That's that. And Life goes on, all around it. Careful consideration calls into question whether Death is even worthy of any independent consideration, being only a bookend on a repetitive organic process.
"Dying an animal's death terrifies humans, who hope (despite themselves) to exist forever. The human imagination of immortality recoils from the prospect of termination, of simple not-being. Once thrust forth into the universe as an existence, a reality, the mind of a mammal expecting eternity becomes its own fatal addiction. Existence itself becomes the underlying desire creating context and cause for all other desires.
"Cynics and atheists insist..."
K shut the book with a snap. Whoever Abel was--he didn't understand humans. "I was okay with not existing, before I did," he muttered. "Don't figure I'll mind after I don't anymore." With the slim volume clumsily back on the shelf, K fumbled toward the door.
He couldn't fault Abel too gravely, he decided in retrospect. Plenty of humans didn't understand humans--and they had the advantage over Abel of having actual experience being a human. As far as K could tell, Abel had only ever been an artificial intelligence algorithm living in a fungus hurtling through space in one of humanity's stupidest ideas.
June 2017
Sunday, June 11
Tuesday, June 6
Enemies
I do not have enemies.
Do not think kindly of me;
people have hated
me, of course; but
I am not important
enough to have enemies.
God is; nations are; perhaps
some humans or institutions
can be, briefly; and, of course
we each have our own demons;
but I have never had an enemy.
Almost no-one truly has.
June 2017
Do not think kindly of me;
people have hated
me, of course; but
I am not important
enough to have enemies.
God is; nations are; perhaps
some humans or institutions
can be, briefly; and, of course
we each have our own demons;
but I have never had an enemy.
Almost no-one truly has.
June 2017
Beginnings
It occurs to me suddenly.
We remember beginnings
We remember beginnings
and ends; but
the work's done in the middle.
Perspiration beads,
two from the river, fall
onto the log; I switch my arms
on the handsaw, adjust my weight,
and carry on;
Saturday glows
through the woods
through the woods
in a summer afternoon.
June 2017
Monday, May 29
Mystery
How mysterious I find You--
waking from a pale sleep in which,
nameless and privately ashamed
among a roaring audience, I watched
a haughty man lightly achieve
my own secret dreams, yearnings
denied my own fierce efforts--only
in grief to find Your glory
a mysterious comfort to my dishonor.
Before a perfect God, all my victories
and defeats, I suppose, are
cheap trophies & shallow scars
of a misunderstood time:
a Hegelian atheist may accuse me of
the slave's fallacy; cheapening today's defeat
with the promise of tomorrow's victory;
perhaps. But--that isn't this.
Heaven, a glory known in hints and parts,
and much imagination, but expected
in the heart of every Man since birth--
gift of a Creator God, perfect in joy and
mysterious in kindness--
comforts by consuming
all my misplaced desires,
supplanting all my secret dreams.
May 2017
waking from a pale sleep in which,
nameless and privately ashamed
among a roaring audience, I watched
a haughty man lightly achieve
my own secret dreams, yearnings
denied my own fierce efforts--only
in grief to find Your glory
a mysterious comfort to my dishonor.
Before a perfect God, all my victories
and defeats, I suppose, are
cheap trophies & shallow scars
of a misunderstood time:
a Hegelian atheist may accuse me of
the slave's fallacy; cheapening today's defeat
with the promise of tomorrow's victory;
perhaps. But--that isn't this.
Heaven, a glory known in hints and parts,
and much imagination, but expected
in the heart of every Man since birth--
gift of a Creator God, perfect in joy and
mysterious in kindness--
comforts by consuming
all my misplaced desires,
supplanting all my secret dreams.
May 2017
Sunday, May 14
Mercy
Your mercies are new every morning:
You, who desires mercy
more than sacrifice; a gift
I but poorly comprehend.
When my faith is weak
Your mercy remains complete; and
when my sins all but consume me
I find in You only sympathy where I
expect condemnation, only compassion
when You deserve a sacrifice.
You, who desires mercy
more than sacrifice; a gift
I but poorly comprehend.
When my faith is weak
Your mercy remains complete; and
when my sins all but consume me
I find in You only sympathy where I
expect condemnation, only compassion
when You deserve a sacrifice.
Too lightly do I consider You; and yet
still: mercy overflows, floods my heart
where death should be.
A fragile being, I find myself
perpetually broken, and in my ears
hear the solemn command that I be
Holy, as You are Holy. I'm not, nor
ever shall be, and yet receive
Your grace and mercy, shown to me
(and all) undeservedly. But, emptied of
gratitude, I fumble with this gift,
asking why You'd do such a thing, why
Evil befalls we undeserving mortals,
aghast at the condemnation of those
whose sins do not offend me.
Well, my sins offend me. And as
only sinners can, I dimly see Your grace
and fail to comprehend its meaning;
only every morning, shamed by
each night's sins, I stumble back
to Your unfailing Love, and mercy
which astounds me, making
every morning new.
may 2017
where death should be.
A fragile being, I find myself
perpetually broken, and in my ears
hear the solemn command that I be
Holy, as You are Holy. I'm not, nor
ever shall be, and yet receive
Your grace and mercy, shown to me
(and all) undeservedly. But, emptied of
gratitude, I fumble with this gift,
asking why You'd do such a thing, why
Evil befalls we undeserving mortals,
aghast at the condemnation of those
whose sins do not offend me.
Well, my sins offend me. And as
only sinners can, I dimly see Your grace
and fail to comprehend its meaning;
only every morning, shamed by
each night's sins, I stumble back
to Your unfailing Love, and mercy
which astounds me, making
every morning new.
may 2017
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