Back in the day, I read C.S. Lewis. He wrote among many things, fiction about space travel and fantasy. One of his visions of the world, more than half serious on his part, was that this place we live in is an asylum for sick souls. There is a kind of quarantine and we are here gathered from many other places in the universe as unsettled and unsavory creatures who cannot fit in with the peace and tranquility to be found everywhere else. That vision haunts me. My Poem, "I Didn't Plan This," is written in that spirit.
I Didn't Plan This
And God said, I want!
He said, You! Then I went, Me?
He said not one word
after that, confusing.
But I was there, I was there
when He rolled round stones
from His own eyes, then
rolled His eyes as if troubled
with the way things go.
June 2, 2011 7:43 PM
i love lewis.
ReplyDeletethere is a wonderful series on youtube by the bbc, sea of faith. have you seen it? it is so incredible, really, to see the wave of belief (and disbelief) advancing through time and circumstance. it is well worth the viewing.
somehow, christopher, this poem comes to mind.
Original Errata
He thought He had made himself perfectly clear:
Let there be lust.
But where there's a will, there's a way
to misunderstand, to make tragic
puzzles of shame and fruit
from lovely ambiguities He had always felt.
No wonder He receded
farther than the stars, farther
than the white room of Emily Dickinson.
He'd had such hopes for the garden:
a slow eureka of tongues in understated moonlight,
rosy virtuosities at dawn, even the pink
loneliness at noon the right hand heals.
Thus, He greeted the first tenants
of the flesh, then paused beside the pear.
He wanted to confide a brazen sweetness ---
the short, slippery slope
He had made for them
into love.
Lynn Powell
it is good to read you again:)
Serendipity abounds, Christopher; I just this afternoon finished a book by Colin Williams that expounds and expands on the C.S. Lewis vision, called "Mind Parasites". It's a bit over the top in places but I managed to read the entire book in two sittings--and is indeed interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteSerendipity abounds, Christopher; I just this afternoon finished a book by Colin Williams that expounds and expands on the C.S. Lewis vision, called "Mind Parasites". It's a bit over the top in places but I managed to read the entire book in two sittings--and is indeed interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteor even colin wilson...
ReplyDelete