Thank God there is no god

or we’d all be lost

if it is He who sends us howling

in murderous despair    at torture

hatred    three or four times a generation

there’d be no hope    and if He permitted

peace to appear    then one day    great plates

of stone beneath the orchards and sea may

move slowly against one another    earthquake

if it is He who built that narrow a bridge

across which we are invited to walk

without fear while all around us

the old the lame the awkward the jumping-

up-and-down children are tumbling off

or sometimes pushed into the hideous

gorge    if it is He then we are surely lost

if it is He who offers free will but

only sometimes    a peculiar gift

for a people who have just distinguished

their right hand from their left

but if we are responsible con-

sider our frequent love for one another

because this is nowadays    we may be able

to look over great distances into

each other’s eyes    these are the tele-

phonic electronic digital nowadays

famous for money and loneliness but we

have defeated Babel by accepting the words

of strangers in glorious translations    if

we can be responsible    if we have

become responsible