Thursday, November 27, 2008

I love this poem...

I'll let you try to figure out why...

Contraband
by: Denise Levertov


The tree of knowledge was the tree of reason.
That's why the taste of it
drove us from
Eden. That fruit
was meant to be dried and milled to a fine powder
for use a pinch at a time, a condiment.
God had probably planned to tell us later
about this new pleasure.
We stuffed our mouths full of it,
gorged on but and if and how and again
but, knowing no better.
It's toxic in large quantities; fumes
swirled in our heads and around us
to form a dense cloud that hardened to steel,
a wall between us and God, Who was
Paradise.
Not that God is unreasonable – but reason
in such excess was tyranny
and locked us into its own limits, a polished cell
reflecting our own faces. God lives
on the other side of that mirror,
but through the slit where the barrier doesn't
quite touch ground, manages still
to squeeze in – as filtered light,
splinters of fire, a strain of music heard
then lost, then heard again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There are some leaders/writers/influencers today which can't seem to get enough reason into their reasonable messages; that anything or anyone who embraces mystery is either unsure of themselves or unable to theologically argue their case. When we make reason our prerequisite for belief we miss the true meaning of faith.
Thanks for sharing this man.