New Nicaean Thinking

 

Fully human

Fully divine

That’s what we say

In answer to an old debate

Whose contesters have

Been dust a while

And still we say it

Because there are those who

Who want only flesh

While there are others

Who would only have perfection

Inside a ghostly presence

 

I don’t mean Hallowe’en

When the veil is thin

But every day, impossibly

God is only flesh

Or a spirit

I didn’t realize

(and don’t)

That, perhaps attaining

Certain saving ranks,

God could be rendered

I suppose beneath the mitre

Or in a meeting room

 

Though God might be outside

In holy, wild majesty

Waiting for the conference to end

To show debate instead

In hurricanes

Or life inside the vacuum

Of space, waiting for visitation

 

There’s flesh

There’s spirit

They stand and move apart

Or somehow they’re conjoined,

Which would be awe

 

Try to understand a black hole

Or transcendent Pi

Find life inside CERN

Or the baby,

Once conceived

 

Maybe we’ll find that we can

Create amazement, too

(I think we’ve done it)

Maybe we’ll be inventing God

As Voltaire did or did not mean

To advise,

 

Or we’ll say it is a better machine

Matching the workings of

A molecule or cell

Nanobots

Realizing dispensation

Plenary indulging

 

C L Couch

 

 

Photo by Don Shin on Unsplash

Stanford Dish

 

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