A Thing Or Two Out Of Eden

 A THING OR TWO OUT OF EDEN

we used to see things through the lens of the beautiful

the beautiful for its own sake, not roped into some cause

not bent on making laws or breaking them;

just being.

we used to be within our minds the kingdoms that we longed for

reading poetry, hearing the great composers as if listening to

angels farther back in time and all that wealth of music, their most

fervent reverent

sublime transcriptions.

I dont know what has happened to all that.

for I still seek and feel the same about the Beautiful.

it has never gone away for me or become subordinate to history

and why indeed would it

could it ever depart being sent by God.

but men imagine they have learned a thing or two this long out of Eden

how to live and die by the numbers

the infallible numbers.

how to turn God on his back like a long lived turtle

and recreate the human race so soulessly

to devote their pallid energies to the problem of

how to exile Beauty, and the merest thought of the beautiful

out of the bounds of earth.

so that they can organize. whatever that means.

and in order that men who freely had grace and mercy from God, from Christ

and are now the jesters of this present hour being counted unaccountably wise

can now court dubious justice in a tyrannical disguise.

mary angela douglas 13 april 2021

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