Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
Watch me read
the poem as
an MP4 video.
Video Music: Heart Strings
By Coyote Hearing.
Music free to use at YouTube.
Illustration Credit: AI.
Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon
Given that there is no explanation,
And that the provenance of the Creation,
Belief or no, remains a mystery,
Regarding how the whole thing came to be,
It makes no sense to squander sense on it.
Enjoy the candles, and when the last one's lit,
Love their loveliness, however lit.
Even so, one seeks an explanation:
Like one for Being, though there's none for it;
Like one for the creation of Creation,
Eternal Being bringing all to be.
Nor would no cause be less a mystery.
So faith and reason end in mystery,
Equally ignorant of what lit
The light from which all beings came to be,
Having no conclusive explanation
As to the existence of Creation,
Nor hint of what might be the cause of it,
Despite the tangibility of it.
Even so, the veil of mystery
Leads one to imagine the Creation,
Inventing how and why the void was lit,
Zealous for an ethical explanation,
A myth that makes love be the cause of be.
But one need not believe a myth to be
Open to the loveliness of it,
Nor need a theological explanation,
Nor care to solve a meta-mystery.
It might have been a miracle that lit
Eight days the lamps, as some say at Creation
A voice out of the void called forth Creation,
Needing out of love for us to be,
Demanding out of love our souls be lit,
Choosing not to be alone. It
Acts as fair use of a mystery,
Repurposing the role of explanation,
Making explanations of Creation
Exquisite art, that mystery might be
Not claimed by faith, but by the lamps it lit.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
Subscribe to this site on YouTube