A Theology of Love
It is so much easier to think of the quicksilver of our lives,
to cherish what we have, love each detail in full light,
than to think of traveling through the black sky, a streak of light,
a breath in a vacuum, with no visible way to the end in sight.
So, I imagine the cosmos, as I imagine the future, parallel lines,
vanishing into heaven’s dark tunnel, to a point where lines converge in light.
I imagine that light, in all its fullness, revealing us, in all our infinite detail,
and, I imagine finally understanding love.
True Love
You tell yourself,
the cold and gray falling from the sky,
are just the weather, not your life, for that,
you listen to your bones.
I have the disposition for religion.
My bones tell me love is the key,
though, I try to live
without dogma and theology,
as best I can.
As it happens,
we can’t turn back,
“For better or worse,”
you tell yourself.
“love what you are.”
Wow, Ron this is so powerful. The cosmology in ‘A Theology of Love’ reminds me of Katie Mack, the poet-astrophysicist who writes similarly meaningful poems. I haven’t read as much of her (or listened–I think her readings are widely available) as I should, but this definitely brings her to mind.
I love “the quicksilver of our lives”, mercury being so elusive and slippery. And I adore “love each detail in full light”. This is definitely a theology, as I read on. The breath in a vacuum reminds me of the creation myth which I can never remember–was it the Hebrew understanding or the Greek understanding that creation came from nothing (“ex nihilo”)…something I need to research more before commenting responsibly and accurately….
Did you watch the sci fi movie ‘Interstellar’? I loved that movie on my first viewing, but my second time through I wasn’t quite as moved.
As for ‘True Love’, I feel the weather seeping into your bones, the leadenness of them, where the truth lies (which you listen to).
Nice ending, and I like the personal in tandem with the cosmological hinting.
Wonderful!
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Thank you Holly, I have not seen the movie but I looked it up and put it on my watchlist. I listened to Mack’s poem “Disorientation” and it is quite powerful.
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