Now Listen. The Beginning knew no dark,
No light, and so no difference in the two.
No notion of contrasting things, no stark,
No sharply. Impulse, verbs, to make, to do,
Could not exist. There was no mind to know them,
The void held none, where absence could not be.
Then somehow a potential formed, to show them
To one potential Word, this only: See.
And then, a flickering. A just potential
Of particles, where none had been before,
And time would soon begin, in exponential
Increase of things that may. And this Word: More.
One flickering had sparked Imagination.
And More begat Desire. And Coalesce.
Potential matter took on gravitation,
And space that would be, started to compress,
Collapsing on itself, to gather force.
Potential metamorphosed into Power,
Collecting in a single point -- the source
Of time itself. And soon, a day, an hour,
Would come to be. But first, Desire must peak.
That flick'ring. Now with all the gathered matter.
Desire, now infinite, began to speak:
Let There Be Light. And Space began to scatter.
And Time began to be. Creation sang.
Some fourteen billion years before us.
Bang.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Alysa Salzberg
Melissa Miles McCarter
Scarlett Sumac
jlsathre
Matt Paust
Jowita Bydlowska
Salon.com
Comments
"And Time began to be. Creation sang.
Some fourteen billion years before us.
Bang."
rated and shared on FB.
"I have," said God.
" A nice idea,
A thing that could be fun."
So he twiddled 'round
With time and space
And fuddled up the Sun.
"Now, that's quite neat!",
He said with heat.
"I'll make a couple more."
And he tumbled out a quantity
'Til it became a bore.
But suns put out a lot of junk
Like planets, dust and gas.
And God, with red-rimmed eyes looked >round
At all this messy jazz.
It made God twitch,
It made God sneeze,
It gave him water on the knees,
It gave Him pimples on his face.
And so, He said, "To hell with this!"
And went some other place.
no more to be said.
froggy, thank you for reading, for liking, for responding. Don't be in awe, please -- you will make me retreat into light verse.
Ken, I don't tackle the entire universe every night. Sometimes it's just about cooking dinner. But I really appreciate the sentiment, especially from someone as exacting with meter as you are. Thank you.
Pilgrim, excellent question. Not a teaching really, but certainly a reflection.
Linnnn, oh man -- this was just the first three verses of Genesis, spun into 6 quatrains and a couplet. How many verses in the whole Bible? I don't think I'm really up to it.
anna1, a thousand times? I'll let my guard down long enough to say yes, I do enjoy hearing that. Thank you.
Dave, slow down! It was only the first 3 verses! Technically speaking, there isn't even any dry land yet!
ladyslipper, thank you for coming by. I am very glad to see you, and know that you enjoyed the poem.
Susan, please don't make it sound too good, I'll get frightened and hide behind occasional verse and greeting cards.
Jeff, thank you. Your comment has spawned an entire post in my sandbox: http://open.salon.com/blog/divorce_bards_sandbox/2010/07/28/a_formal_meandering
scupper, thank you. I'm glad you liked the line. It wasn't easy to get to.
Joan, that is a very strong word. And I know you are careful with them. Thank you.
Jan, your Exit Genesis -- what a wonderful exegesis.
trilogy, thank you. No whimper.
I'd like to invite everyone to my post in the sandbox. The link is just above, in my thank-you to Jeff Maehre.
Tonight I will not try to take on the entire universe in my post. I was up much too late last night.
Thanks all.
I should have come to this page first.
I like "Now listen."
and "so no" - reminds me of sleep,
before "potential," like a dream about to be realised,
and then, in order See, more, desire, and coalesce,
somehow, and made power rhyme with hour ...
then Bang.
I take the beret from my head
and bow from the waist, db.
Does "power" not rhyme with "hour" in Australia?
Your servant.
I'd use two syllables for power.
It makes no difference to how this reads, but I'm glad to come back, because I forgot to mention the score that was playing ( in my mind ) as I read this, after the expo in the sandbox : Gustav's Planets.