PRESENTENSE

If asked,
What is the day?
I answer not what it is,
But what it is not;
Neither yesterday,
Nor the morrow.
For today
Is the only day
Of the year,
That in joy,
God hast wrought.
In contrast,
The past is painted with
Sorrows and
Our future tomorrows
Are sculpted in fear.

RECITALS

ELOHIM RECITAL*

In the beginning, the essence of Elohim

was hovering over the face of the void;

and dark matter was without form,

and dark energy was over the face of the deep.

This essence of Elohim was a concept integrated within a void of data.

This algorithm of data created the conceptual manifestation

of a singularity within the formless void of potentiality

and mass/energy/plasma exploded into being!

The Elohim created the Big Bang;

And the Elohim saw that it was good;

the first stage of continuous creation.

And then the Elohim said,

“Let there be photons,”

and there was light.

And the Elohim saw that the light was good.

And the Elohim separated the light

from the darkness and matter and energy

separated into quantum states of being.

The Elohim called the higher energy states “light”,

and the lower energy states he called "matter”.

And there was darkness

and there was lightness;

And the Elohim saw that it was good;

the second stage of continuous creation.

Then the Elohim said,

“Let there be lights

in the expanse of the skies

to separate the day from the night.

And let them be for signs

and for seasons,

and for days and years,

and let there be lights

in the expanse of the the skies

to give light upon the planets.”

And it was so.

And the Elohim set them

in the expanse of the the skies

to give light on the planets

and to separate the light

from the darkness.

And the Elohim saw that it was good;

the third stage of continuous creation.

Billions of years evaporated

as would illimitable cold fogs

under innumerable hot suns.

And then the Elohim made

the two great lights to rule

over the day and over the night;

the greater light to rule the day,

the lesser light and the stars to rule the night.

And there was evening and there was morning;

a perfect day.

Then Elohim said,

“Let there be expansive space

in the between the waters,

and let it separate the clouds

from the waters.”

And the Elohim made the expanse

and separated the waters

that were above the expanse

from the waters

that were below the expanse.

And it was so.

And the Elohim called the expanse the Skies.

And the Elohim said,

“Let the waters under the the skies

be gathered together into one place,

and let the dry land appear.”

And it was so.

The Elohim called the dry land Earth,

and the waters that were gathered together

he called Seas.

And the Elohim saw that it was good;

the third stage of continuous creation.

And the Elohim said,

“Let the earth sprout vegetation,

plants yielding seed,

and fruit trees bearing fruit

in which is their seed,

each according to its kind,

on the earth and in the seas.”

And it was so.

The earth brought forth vegetation,

plants yielding seed

according to their own kinds,

and trees bearing fruit

in which is their seed,

each according to its kind.

And the Elohim saw that it was good.

And the Elohim said,

“Let the waters swarm with living creatures,”

so the Elohim created the great sea creatures

and let the waters swarm with every living creature

and that which swarms according to their kinds.

And the Elohim blessed them, saying,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill

all the waters in the seas.”

And the Elohim blessed them, saying,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill

all the lands and waters in the seas.”

And there was evening and there was morning;

another perfect day;

the fourth stage of continuous creation.

And the Elohim said,

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures

according to their kinds.

Dinosaur and reptile

and insect and mammal

of the earth according to their kinds.”

And it was so.

And the Elohim made the dinosaurs

of the earth according to their kinds

and the mammals according to their kinds,

and everything that creeps,

snakes and insects on the ground

according to its kind.

And the Elohim saw that it was good.

And the Elohim blessed them, saying,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill all the lands.”

And the Elohim said,

“Let birds fly above the earth

across the expanse of the the skies.

and every winged bird according to its kind.”

And the Elohim saw that it was good.

And the Elohim blessed them, saying,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill al the skies

and let birds multiply on all the earth.”

And there was evening and there was morning,

another perfect day;

the fifth stage of continuous creation.

And then the Elohim said,

“Let US make humans in the image

of OUR spirits

and after the likeness

of OUR souls.

And let them become guardians

over the fish of the sea

and over the birds of the the skies

and over the animals of the earth,

over every insect thing that creeps on the earth

and over all the lands.”

So the Elohim created humans in his own image,

in the image of the Elohim

he created them;

male and female he created them.

And the Elohim said to them,

“Be fruitful and multiply

and fill the earth and care for it,

and have guardianship over the fish of the sea

and over the birds of the the skies

and over every living thing

that moves on the earth.”

And the Elohim said,

“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed

that is on the face of all the earth,

and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them only for food.

And to every beast of the earth

and to every bird of the the skies

and to everything that creeps on the earth,

everything that has the breath of life,

I have given every green plant for food.”

And it was so.

And the Elohim

saw everything

that they had made,

and behold,

it was very good!

And there was evening and there was morning,

the most perfect day;

the sixth stage of continuous creation.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day Elohim finished his work that he had done,

and he entered on the seventh day into all his work that he had done.

So Elohim blessed the seventh day and made it holy,

because on it Elohim entered his work that he had done in creation.

EHYAH-ASHER-EHYAH RECITAL*

When no bush of the field

was yet in the land

and no small plant of the field

had yet sprung up;

for the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

had not caused it to rain on the land,

and there was no Adama

to work the ground,

and a mist was going up

from the land

and was watering

the whole face of the ground,

then the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

formed the Adama of dust

from the ground

and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life,

and the Adama became a living creature.

Now the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

had planted a garden in Eden, in the east,

and there he put the Adama whom he had formed.

And out of the ground

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

made to spring up every tree

that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden,

and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

took the Adama and put him in the garden of Eden

to work it and keep it.

And the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

commanded the Adama, saying,

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge

of the distinction between

conceptualized good and evil

you shall not eat,

for in the day that you eat of it,

you shall surely know you will die.”

Now out of the ground

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

had formed every beast of the field

and every bird of the heavens

and brought them to the Adama

to see what he would name them.

And whatever the Adama

called every living creature,

that was then its conceptual idealization.

The Adama gave names to all livestock

and to the birds of the heavens

and to every beast of the field.

But for the Adama

there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

caused a deep sleep to fall upon the Adama,

and while he slept took some of his rib DNA

and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib DNA that

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

had taken from the Adama

he made into a woman

and brought her to the Adama.

And the man and his woman

were both naked

and were not ashamed.

Now the serpentine was more crafty

than any other beast of the field that

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim had made.

He said to the woman,

“Did Elohim actually say,

‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent,

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

but Elohim said,

‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman,

“You will not surely die.

For the Elohim knows

that when you eat of it

your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like Elohim,

knowing good and evil.”

So when the woman saw

that the tree was good for food,

and that it was a delight to the eyes,

and that the tree was to be desired

to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate,

and she also gave some to Adama

who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened,

and they knew that they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together

and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

walking in the garden

in the cool of the day,

and the Adama and his woman

hid themselves from the presence of

the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

among the trees of the garden.

But the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

called to the Adama and said to him,

“Where are you?”

And Adama said,

“I heard the sound of you in the garden,

and I was afraid,

because I was naked,

and I hid myself.”

He said,

“Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you not to eat?”

The Adama said,

“The woman whom you gave to be with me,

she gave me fruit of the tree,

and I ate.”

Then the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

said to the woman,

“What is this that you have done?”

The woman said,

“The serpentine deceived me,

and I ate.”

And the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

made for Adama and for his woman

garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the Ehyah-Asher-Ehyah Elohim

said,

“Behold, the humans have become like one of US

in knowing distinction between good and evil.

Now, lest he reach out his hand

and take also of the tree of life and eat,

and live forever...”

* (from the Book of Genesis, Chapters One through Three using the English Standard Version, but poetically enhanced)

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

CHOKHMAH RECITAL**

“The YHVH created me

at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of long ago.

Ages ago I was formed,

from the first,

before the beginning of the earth,

when there were no seas

and when there were no springs

abounding with water.

I was brought into being

before the hills,

and before the mountains

had been shaped,

“I was created

when earth and fields

had not yet been made

or the world's first bits of soil!

“When the heavens were established,

I was there!

When the circle was drawn on the face of the deep,

I was there!

When the skies were made firm above,

I was there!

When the fountains of the deep were established,

I was there!

When the sea was assigned to its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress

the marked foundations of the earth,

Then I was beside YHVH,

like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always!

Rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the human race.

Does not Sophia shout greetings?

Does not Gnosis raise her voice?

On the high places,

or beside the highways,

or in the market places?

Does She not take her stand

beside the gates

in front of the city.

and at the entrance of doorways?

She shouts aloud!

"To you,

O humanity,

I call,

and my cry

is to all

that are alive.

“O simple ones;

learn justice.

O simple ones;

acquire intelligence.

“You who lack it, hear!

“For I will speak with honesty,

and from my lips will come rationality.

My mouth will utter sweet truth,

for inequity is disgusting to my tongue.

All the words of my mouth are righteous

and there is nothing unsavory

or corrupt within them.

They are all accurate

to one who understands

and straight to those who find Gnosis.

“Take my teaching instead of silver,

and my knowledge rather than gold;

for Chokhmah is better than jewels,

and all that you may desire

can never compare with Her.

“I, Sophia,

live with discretion,

and I give knowledge

and direction.

“The love of the YHVH

is hatred of injustice.

Pride and arrogance,

and the way of inequity

and perverted speech;

I despise.

“I have good advice

and sound wisdom;

I have insight and

I have strength.

“By me

kings and rulers reign

and decree what is just.

By me

all rulers who govern,

rule nobly and rightly.

“I love those who love me,

and those who seek me

diligently will find me.

“My fruits, my yield are honor,

and with me enduring prosperity,

much better than any riches of gold,

even fine gold or wealth of choice silver.

“I walk in the way of righteousness,

along the paths of justice,

endowing those who love me,

and filling their hearts.

"And now, my children,

listen to me!

“Happy are those

who keep my ways

and hear my logos.

And to be wise, do not neglect it!

“Happy is the one

who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me

finds life

and obtains favor from the YHVH.

But those who miss me

injure themselves,

because all who hate me love death."

** (From The Book of Proverbs; Chapter 8 - NRSV - rearranged for poetic versification)

The New Revised Standard Version [NRSV] is copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of  Christ in the United  States of America, and its text is used by permission.

Cave Canum

  

(Once upon a time 
Adam named the concepts, 
Eve defined the options and 
the walker 
in the cool of the day 
killed an animal for skins 
to hide closed eyes from sins.) 

Then Paul asked, 

“So won't you listen to what the man said? 

And John said...

“God is a concept,  
by which we  
measure  
our pain... 
the dream is over!” 

What dream? 

This materialistic dharma.
This charming reality of
delusional harm.

If over it is, then  
we should hear the siren,
the growling alarm, 
and it is time to stop sleeping 
with the solidity of a log. 

So... 

Wake up from your vacations!
and believe not what you wish.
Beware of reifications and
beware of the Dog! 

Dog Night

Tonight, as my dog, Strider,
walks me through the silent shadows,
I sense a dull pain effusing from the stones,
a weird sensation of unnatural old cold
rising through the soles of my boots,
seeping through the marrow of my leg bones,
and weighing me down
like a  frozen skeletal rider.

The air is not uncomfortable,
but the ache that I experience is.
It is cold, oh, so,
cold and horrible.

My friend, my only companion,
leads me onward to that junction
in the road
that I may release him
and let him run without harm,
without caution.

It is just ahead and
around the bend
where the graveyard,
the fenced cemetery ends
and the open fields begin.

“Slow down, boy,” I grunt.
“We’ll get there soon enough,
I warrant.
Ain’t no rabbits out tonight anyway.”
I lie.
He huffs and strains against the chain.

I puff, short of breath and
have a feeling of not being there,
still, I am completely aware
of that which surrounds me,
to that which I am inextricably linked,
my environment within and without me'
Yet, somehow events seem kinked.

It is a gloomy night, but I do not fear,
for my dog can her
that which I can not,
and I depend upon his senses
for my protection;
because tonight,
this night of expectation,
I am far from the traveled lands
of my own,
my humankind.

We reach the point of release
and I command my friend to halt
so that I can unclip his collar from the leash.
He is off.

I stand quiet in the night, listening.
It seems a gentle late October evening.
I hear the rustling of the dried oak
and hickory leaves that my friend pads through.
The breeze cause decaying branches
to rattle against each other, too.

Far away, a lonely coyote calls once,
just once.

The moon is just a thin crescent
low in the western sky,
which leads me to believe
that the coyote
has not that much for to cry.

 Strider barks, not in that inquisitive,
“What the hell is this?” way,
but frantically and frenetically
as if at bay.

I turn in the direction of his sound
and barely see
his running form back to me.

“What is it, boy?” I ask.

His answer is the shaking of his body
against my knee.
I kneel down and hug him.
He still shakes, then gives a little whine
taking me to task
for not being there for him,
he knows he's mine
and I am his chap.
I sit down Indian style
and Strider crawls onto my lap.

This night has no shadows now.

Peering Through a Glass Darkly

I climb exhaustedly,
hunched over,
in tears,
as I gain the summit
of a hill of years,
and from my elderly
vantage point I can barely
distinguish through a
hazy distance a lonely
church spire from which
I dimly hear the tolling
of a muffled bell.

It beckons me,
as would a doorbell ringing,
or laughing children singing,
or ice cream trucks dinging
around my old neighborhood.

Slowly shambling down my hill
then with an ever gradual springing
in my stride, I begin to run and
sooner than a burst of a
lightning sun
I am at the the church building
with the spire
soaring into the
golden blue heavens above me.

My limbs are tingling
with the vibrant feeling
of an energy
of a new youth.

Straining my legs
and pushing higher
onto the tips of my toes
I can scarcely peer
through glass stained
indigo.
The inner light is dim,
yet the sun shines
through all the windows
enough to show me
nobody's home.

An old hand and
rhyming game runs
through my perplexity.
"Here's the church,
here's the steeple.
Open the doors and
where's all the people."

Then I awaken.


The above is a poetic allusion to the fading Christian congregations that the increasingly secular scientific Western societies experience today. Some people believe that it must be that great ogre SCIENCE that is to blame, when actually, I believe: it's the amount of time we spend every day seeking money, things and amusements. It is true that the more educated among us have become more secularized and cannot believe in a loving other that is here, there and everywhere--religious superstitions­­--quite as wholeheartedly as did our ancestors. Yet, this post-Enlightenment paradigm has not supplanted the "wow factor" from our present perceptual experiences. No, it has been replaced by an artifice beyond the imaginations of the greatest ancient Epicurean philosophers. Why go to a church when there is a great game on or a groovy movie playing, not to mention the hundreds of schlock filled cable shows saturated with ads we all absorb via the Internet?

Our primeval awe has gone, that jaw-dropping sense of personal humlity, yet seeming always imbued with a buoyant sense of wonder that manufactured gods and dreams from the stuff of nature and ourselves.

And that's another problem; we no longer live withIN nature. We live insulated from and withOUT it. This explains why a large minority of us seem oblivious to our surrounding environmental degradation.

Another major impediment to church attendance is the insidious hierarchical structure of organized religion. It is a turnoff for the young and the free-thinkers among us. It seems the only way to get folks into a church nowadays is for the elders to appeal to the selfish natures of our worst angels. In other words, promise the new coming tithers plenty of pie-in-the-sky dreams, controversies and MORE amusements. Something that is antithetical to the teaching of any prophetic savant, whether Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Buddhistic, take your pick. They all preach against what is happening now in our mega-churches.

It seems such a shame, although I have to confess that I don't go to church, either. My reasons for non-attendance are manifold.

The primary excuse goes like this: there are two churches in my small town, Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic. I have been baptized in the Southern Baptist tradition and this occurred when I was nine, not a truly responsible, nor reasonable age to understand the complexities of Protestant dogma. Yet, I truly believed then and as far back as the age of five years old. Yet, my soon discovery of the racist founding of the Southern church led me to disdain the fellowship.

As for the Roman Catholic church, I have not been catechized, therefore I cannot partake of the Eucharist. I am limited to these two choices, because I do not drive and the next nearest group of churches is fifteen miles away, a fairly long walk.

Besides this excuse, I have another; I am not really into the doctrine of the Trinity, which I consider a Nicaean human compromise endorsed by a Roman imperator and not what I believe comes from the "hand" of the Father, the "God" that Yeshua of Nazareth taught his disciples to love. But, what I truly miss is "fellowship." (A term that is tinged with the shade of male chauvinism, yet is the one commonly used.)

To me, fellowship is the raison d'être of any church gathering. To be with sisters and brothers surrendered to agape IS heaven on earth.

And that's what I want to see, when I climb that hill; heaven on earth.

LA ROSE ET L'ÉPINE

Arrière Pensée

I stood there...
That was all that I could dare,
or would do;
only stand dumb and numb,
as Cephas, weeping,
and stare at the man,
seemingly sleeping,
whose life was
slowly
seeping
from a
long,
carmine seam
neatly sewn
into his left side,
just below his Adam's bone,
a thin,
fine
scar,
surgically incised
by a fiendishly honed
Damascene
steel
Scimitar.

Beneath the distant howls and
clangs of the diminishing battle,
I heard, what I believed
to be a moan.
No, my hearing conceived,
more or less,
it to be a groan,
but I doubted this
and I soon perceived this
to be a sonic mirage,
a delusion
spawned by a hopeful
dread,
for I knew him to be dying
or already dead.
An overwhelming desire
urged me to rush to his aid,
but due to my reason
I knew it to be folly,
and I only stood
heavy footed,
for the wound was too deep
and too fatal;
and because of my arrière pensée,
I was as rooted,
as a cedar of Lebanon,
to the ground.
Still...
A stray sound...
"Karl?"
Frederick asked and beckoned me nearer.
"Am I alive?"
I nodded,saying,
"And, I am here, Sir."

Le Sang des Fidèles

Of a sudden,
a cold and mighty surge of shame
washed over me.
I felt an urgent need
to flee from this realm and
ride down this dry Wadi of Ignominy,
and fly into the furtive domain of Hell,
then crawl into an adamantine shell
to hide myself,
to hide my name.
My dishonor?
I could not,
or would not,
thwart the sword blow
that maimed my lord
and felled him to the earth.
But, I did not go away.
With my bloody claymore dangling
from a gauntleted,
enfeebled hand,
stained with the blood of the faithful.
I crouched near
to better hear
his command.
I was afraid that I was witnessing
his last moments drawing near,
afraid to exist
without his might
to guide me through
this darkness terrible,
lost his beacon light
agleam on my sea of night.
I lightly braced him so he
could slightly lift himself upon an elbow.
I feared further pain to him,
so I only knelt,
young head bowed,
as would a man much older.
Then, I felt his huge hand clamp my shoulder.

"Karl?" He wheezed.

"Yes, my lord. I am here."
I answered again,
but I swear,
I was losing all sense
of reason and rhyme,
the season in time
and whether or not
I was really here,
or there...

Ostium Apertum In Caelo

I soared upwards,
yet I looked down,
as I was floating
like a cloud,
to see my body
on the ground.
"Behold!"
I heard
the Logos
sounding loudly;
like unto a thunder,
like unto a waterfall,
like unto shofars
resounding beyond number.
"Look!"
Said one like a son of man.
"What do you see?"
Pointing toward
a latten sea.
How can I tell this tale?
Where to begin?
And where is the end
of this fable?
Thus?

MIGRATION

  

Animals and humans 

Sometimes flee 

From winter  

When beginning  

Their journeys 

To find  

A new spring. 

All refugees  

Are migratory,  

By definition.  

But not all  

Migrants  

Are refugees.  

You see?

So politician,  

Which is it?  

What will it be? 

Migrant or  

Refugee?