08-01-2017, 03:46 AM
It won’t be like the preachers say. - The poem carries an anti-religious vibe but is not accusatory or too critical of faith. It almost seems like the narrator understands why people are religious but is simply trying to explain why he is not.
As they strut like college boys with their father
into the whorehouse of their imaginings.
God is not concerned
with a back ache in South Carolina,
nor does He speak in the voice
of your wife through a radio transmitter.
If light is simply His self-revelation,
and at a word galaxies spun out stars,
an explosion of so many dying fireflies.
If breath from His anthropomorphic lungs - Am I right in assuming these two stanzas are putting forth the premise that if we were created from God's image, we would know it? That there would be no doubt? Yet, the world obviously has doubt, so we cannot have been created. Why would God create us then never give us undeniable proof? I like that concept, it's philosophical and a fairly unique perspective in my opinion.
filled our lungs, so that we would also speak,
become His image in resounding echo,
then when we hear that whisper,
the infinite will settle on our tongue
a brand unquenchable. I found
it to be like an envelope torn open, - I think this stanza is describing the narrator rationalizing the separation from their faith. Or maybe describing how it was never really a part of them to begin with.
contents spilled out--a forgotten detail
never learned, like a string
never tied to an invisible finger.
There was only the name of a stranger, - I'm assuming you are now speaking about the bible. And how the possibility could be that God was created from those who wrote the Bible rather than God creating the contents.
her life in an intricate script,
a half-brother, my likely schizophrenia,
and the pressure to write it all down.
The next day, she existed, Ex nilhio,
like a conjuror's trick, or a book
I had already read. The world wobbled
like a top, and I couldn’t return to silence - Once created, there was no going back. What is the meaning of or reason for this stanza? I am not reaching a conclusion here. Perhaps that is my own fault, or maybe my interpretation has been wrong the whole time.
no matter how I covered my ears.
Wonderfully complex poem, yet the theme is consistent, great work. I think I need to re-read it a few more times to grasp it. These are my initial impressions.
As they strut like college boys with their father
into the whorehouse of their imaginings.
God is not concerned
with a back ache in South Carolina,
nor does He speak in the voice
of your wife through a radio transmitter.
If light is simply His self-revelation,
and at a word galaxies spun out stars,
an explosion of so many dying fireflies.
If breath from His anthropomorphic lungs - Am I right in assuming these two stanzas are putting forth the premise that if we were created from God's image, we would know it? That there would be no doubt? Yet, the world obviously has doubt, so we cannot have been created. Why would God create us then never give us undeniable proof? I like that concept, it's philosophical and a fairly unique perspective in my opinion.
filled our lungs, so that we would also speak,
become His image in resounding echo,
then when we hear that whisper,
the infinite will settle on our tongue
a brand unquenchable. I found
it to be like an envelope torn open, - I think this stanza is describing the narrator rationalizing the separation from their faith. Or maybe describing how it was never really a part of them to begin with.
contents spilled out--a forgotten detail
never learned, like a string
never tied to an invisible finger.
There was only the name of a stranger, - I'm assuming you are now speaking about the bible. And how the possibility could be that God was created from those who wrote the Bible rather than God creating the contents.
her life in an intricate script,
a half-brother, my likely schizophrenia,
and the pressure to write it all down.
The next day, she existed, Ex nilhio,
like a conjuror's trick, or a book
I had already read. The world wobbled
like a top, and I couldn’t return to silence - Once created, there was no going back. What is the meaning of or reason for this stanza? I am not reaching a conclusion here. Perhaps that is my own fault, or maybe my interpretation has been wrong the whole time.
no matter how I covered my ears.
Wonderfully complex poem, yet the theme is consistent, great work. I think I need to re-read it a few more times to grasp it. These are my initial impressions.
I've always wanted to live in a world where it's okay to pronounce both L's in my name.