it could be Perelandra
I’d like to say
war does not belong
or
evil in any obvious form
as well as some
sometimes
the insidious
I’d like to go on to say
rampant fire does not belong
whatever
the origin
and
lava flows
eruptions overall
then there are floods
sometimes
seasonal
sometimes otherwise
at hand
in other words
all the problems that destroy the body
try will
with severity
challenge the virtue of the spirit
what promises bad ends
and tries to take us
there
does not belong
could we have a world of this
instead
and what belongs
is
good
and easy
and airy
and practical
and makes a world worthy
from which to explore
and is there
doctrine
or a selling point
that says we’re there already
but
we’re not
and have to deal in all
the evil
with the good
the war
the fire and the flood
and
what goes on inside us
shall we be saved
while everything is motley
to
our spirit-sight
our senses
to celebrate inherent goodness
and
to bring it out
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Perelandra is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It is considered science fiction and is about a world facing a choice and so be fallen (as a world) or not.
photo by Qingbao Meng on Unsplash
we are grateful for
what we have and what we use
true the First People
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photo by Kevin Crosby on Unsplash
Bear Lodge, mistranslated as Devil’s Tower
then whose Earth and who decides
rated S for sad
1
cold or hot
the future is
uncertain
well
of course
it is
there might be winter forever
after cloud cover ironically
from heat should shield
us
tragically
from the sun
or we could heat
so fast
a melting Earth
with
torching skies might be
all
there is
it’s the unnatural future
of concern
we cannot escape or
even
evade
not really
it’s the planet
after all
the one we have affected
are
changing now
the profiteers believing there is more
to eke out while
the Earth
is
held together
more
and much more
and
a little more
before things crack for good
and then
things crack for good
2
leave the Earth go
a billion years
or so
leaving time to build
allowing time
to heal
the Earth will crack eventually
on its own
in
relation to a dying sun
all that we’re doing
so adversely
here
happen
naturally and by then we will
be ready
we’ll be somewhere else
by
then
happy to be there
too
as we can imagine if we cooperate
with the planet
now
rather than take
a few make money
leaving the consequences to
the children
unmindlessly
a consciousness to let the world
die
here and now
with
the suddenness of
a generation against Earth’s
own ages
our children
or
maybe their own
maybe
left with hard gold
to chew
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photo by Daniel Christie on Unsplash
racially speaking
the world
is of races
and is racist
now
how did we pull that off
I suppose because
we approach another people
ready
to take power
and impose it
as if
power were ours
and not lent from God
and for God’s judgment
later
I approach another color
and see
fascination
then
I hear it
but who am I
naïve
I guess
to find a thrill in meeting someone else
who clearly is not me
while racially I’m fine with me
but
I know my race and color
and here is someone who’s not me
whole
land’s worth
in fact
and isn’t that
terrific
and clearly as a world
we have not come
to feel that way
common
ancestry notwithstanding
and
could we not apply our art and science
our proclivities toward vision
our skills in
observation
with reception of each other based
on vision
sure
(and sure)
observation
goodness
there are stories
folks
of folks
and should that not be
grand occupation
that’s races
anyway
next
time maybe taking up religion
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I was looking for an image to accompany a verse on Gaza and, based on my selection, was shown all sorts of pictures of all sorts of people—the theme the site selected between them all was water—and the diversity, of the parts of our planet as well, got me thinking
photo by Dibakar Roy on Unsplash
many and great
third light tonight
third candle lit
two days
ago
the parent and the child
traditions
illuminating
the brother of Isaac has
a place
as well
and will acknowledge the same father
when
it’s time
and then east of east
there
are traditions birthing meditation
and unity in
consciousness
while
west
of here
that admittedly was here
there is understanding of an Earth
that’s borderless
flown over by trickster
Raven
and higher
lower more
the Great Spirit
so
too
those with not tradition or
acknowledge none plus
the followings so many
more
on Earth
so many ways to count
measure
this day
not as the stars
though
as people here might be grouped
or
on one’s own develop
a philosophy
as well
ways to know the Earth and
Lord
of Earth
and
sky
and us for making
and for being there
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(writing from the eastern USA)
from the Dakota Hymn
Many and great, O God, are thy works,
Maker of earth and sky;
Thy hands have set the heavens with stars;
Thy fingers spread the mountains and plains.
(Joseph Renville)
photo by Roberto Shumski on Unsplash
gray time
it’s gray
as if the lightest fog in front
so
light’s ironic
without evidence
but
knowing that it’s time
Earth knows
while
it’s whole around the sun
fractured
since making and
in time
shall have the splinters going through
the core
and
all of us
gray like these days
shall hopefully have left
gone
to
another world that has
tectonically
so far to go
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photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
the luck of the Irish
(or of whichever group is yours)
how many billions of us here
on one planet
with enough aspects aligning
not only
to harbor life but
to let it go
sentience
construction beyond nature
building everything for good or ill
to have a world
of us
no other planet far as we know does
this
and other systems might
we’re also made to go away
in time
we have choice
because the Earth by nature has
a shelf life
and we must be gone by
time
now we have a billion years or so
depending on who’s
counting
but sometime we’ll have to be somewhere
that’s the way this Earth and us were
arranged and what
shall we know of other
living
places
carbon-oxygen
that is
and shall let us land
in spite of global space shipwreck-reefs
or
defensive denizens
that
we might
to build again
maybe in alliance
more
than conquest
for a change
we have a billion years to go
to get that smart
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(Carl Sagan Day this year was three days ago; I been returning to world-thoughts ever since)
photo by Lianhao Qu on Unsplash
Abraham Lake, Clearwater County, AB, Canada
published 14 hours ago
better news
1
better news
that God loves us
and sent
the child of God
to
live and innocent and perfect life
and then to be
killed
by the powers of the world
and the princes of the air
and
yet not have that be done
be it
and there is so much
more
because the child came back
up to Earth
if that was the direction
out
to all
to offer the child’s resurrection
from death to life
to a life for each of
us
and life that goes on
forever
finally
on a renewed Earth
beside or somewhere near
or in
a new heaven
and that’s our job
believe
2
feeling Christian
this morning
or
recalling who I am
and
that God sent God through
the Spirit of the Lord
so that
not only this
sect
but the whole world of us
might
believe and so be saved
from death
and
for this day and
the next and
on
be saved from sin as well
the whole word
John 3:17
remember to share it this way
a gospel for everyone
3
and will
we guess at
for
fun or profit
or in what we might
take
as the conquest of space
whether or not
Jesus
came to Mars
on comets
inside asteroids
and
shall Christ be there
awaiting lunar Artemis
as we
begin again
which is all right
‘cause Jesus has saved Mars
comets and asteroids and
first for us
the moon
for
the silent planet speaks again
and all that happened
here
to revive and fallen
pick us up so we
might
carry on again
miracle
new song
and our own arriving
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C. S. Lewis posits a cosmically quiet Earth and us in Out of the Silent Planet
photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash
good and plenty
(not that I’m a fan of licorice)
God is good
and God is here
we reach out
to God
while we are here
wishing ours were better
when it’s
not
and also taking time
and sharing words of thanksgiving
for part of that
good
we have
and life goes mingled this way
even
with the Lord
and we persist in this adulterated life
because we should and is
our impulse to go
on
not
to wish ourselves to heaven
way before it’s time
or
whenever
the surprise to know
with
sadness left behind
while on the way toward joy in paradise
and this
is how it goes
as well
a mingled afterlife
and
not
to say this life is a rehearsal only
for it’s not
while it is for what comes after
it is its own
for dreaming and for realizing dreams
with
accountability along the way
so if frustrating
not
to have virtue instantly
rewarded
there is nonetheless
far-down peace that rises
through our flesh and to
our eyes
and mouths
to exude and share
what
we might know of lasting joy
that like the class activity to tell and
show
even the love of God and love as God
on Earth
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(allusion aside, the candy licorice fan would be my sister)
photo by The Nix Company on Unsplash
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