30 January 2023

Layers of Gods

 

“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
“Who cares for you?” said Alice. .   .

“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!



~Alice in Wonderland, Chapter XII
By Lewis Carroll


O gods, the gods, God, too, I wish I could scold them,
You’re nothing but a pack of cards, a parlor game!  
So you have Mary with saints when she must have been
 
Jewish, and Celtic gods with Christians as if it 
mattered to make the stories congruous.  As if 
entangling wrought the truth. Tangle more!  Fertility
 
is a human and animal gift, a wild gift,
a living-being gift—insect and flora and fauna 
and organic matter and everything in between.
 
Isn’t fertility in every sacred text and in The Word and
its annunciation and pronunciation? 
How we love generation!  Even those of us 

who are the audience, the exception that makes 
the rest take on additional reality.  
So let's hear a story of Bridget and Mary
 
while spring quickens the light as if a Christ starting
the dance of gladness, a sprite counting out departures 
we regret, a chorus to praise the land and fertility.
 
We'll help the land become fertile again now that 
it has soaked up so much blood.  O gods, the gods,
God, too, let’s calm our fires so light will return.


 

For earthweal:     



My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2023 Susan L. Chast



5 comments:

  1. O gods, the gods,
    God, too, let’s calm our fires so light will return... that is so powerful and beautiful...

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  2. The purification we might need most might require dimming our gods. The human-only ones, those othering deities. Who else requires so much blood?

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  3. I am struck by the lines Rajani quoted too. And the fact Jesus was Jewish, yet is presented with blue eyes.......oh, gods, indeed........what will it take to make a civilised world of us?

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  4. Love this. I think the Gods are in that wild. That mycelial magic. That unfolding dance.

    A very vibrant piece of writing for me. Thank You.

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  5. A fierce and necessary prayer.

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