Friday, November 23, 2012
Poem by Grace Schulman (:God's Letters)
God's Letters
by Grace Schulman
When God thought up the world,
the alphabet letters
whistled in his crown,
where they were engraved
with a pen of fire,
each wanting to begin
the story of Creation.
S said, I am Soul.
I can Shine out
from within your creatures.
God replied, I know that,
but you are Sin, too.
L said, I am Love,
and I brush away malice.
God rejoined, Yes,
but you are Lie,
and falsehood is not
what I had in mind.
P said, I am Praise,
and where there's a celebration,
I Perform
in my Purple coat.
Yes, roared God,
but at the same time,
you are Pessimism—
the other side of Praise.
And so forth.
All the letters
had two sides or more.
None was pure.
There was a clamor
in paradise, words,
syllables, shouting
to be seen and heard
for the glory
of the new heavens and earth.
God fell silent,
wondering,
How can song
rise from that commotion?
Rather than speculate,
God chose B,
who had intoned,
Bashfully, Boldly,
Blessed is his name.
And he made A
first in the Alphabet
for admitting, I am All—
a limitation
and a possibility.
NOTE: Somehow, this poem reminds me of Kundalini--a process that has two sides. One is joy and rapture--the other can be pain and discomfort. However, most of us, having survived the difficult stages, ultimately find joy and peace in the quiet of a passage safely past, a journey with its own rewards.
