God did not invent candles or electric light bulbs.
He invented forest fires, the sun, electricity.
He has affection for certain volcanoes.
Does He prefer us to smoke?
Forest fires encourage new growth.
I note there are dark matter halos,
that Comets, planets produce no light
are not luminous. Neutrinos pass through
you and me, everything that is or has been
for fifteen billion years... after the flash.
On earth it’s hard to believe God
prefers the middle, moderate, temperate zones.
Hell was made for the Devil and his angels.
The Lord invented water, its names and habitation.
He invented the word and argument,
Auden and fog.
Blasphemy I insist amuses Him.
He allows the spirit of the dead to enter
a living person, take possession thereof.
Prayers in so many languages help Him sleep.
Does He dream? You say “He never sleeps.
how can He sleep, His eye on every sparrow?”
He still provides occasional horseshit,
God’s love, for birds of a feather.
He invented grapes not wine, wheat not bread,
blind trees He feeds with sunlight and rain.
He invented crossbreeding and hybrids—the living.
He did not invent metaphors, the psalms,
versification, artificial intelligence.
Milton justified the ways of God to man,
creation vs invention.
I sum up: the Lord created colors not paint.
Paint cracks, falls off walls, mosaics last longer,
gardens survive without any human attention.
He prefers gardens to city streets
with their skyscrapers and glass windows.
His face is everything we see and cannot see—
what? Where?
Near our cottage in Chalk River, Ontario,
lightning made a matchstick of an oak.
Surrounded by forest fires, I heard
Protestant and Catholic bells
summoning the volunteer fire brigade.
Does He need money? Perhaps water is His currency.
Does He prefer to be called Father
or another of His forty four names?
Dearest Forest Fire,
sometimes I prefer a pond to ocean,
a lit match to a forest fire,
a rocking chair to an earthquake,
today, an act of a woman to an act of God.
—2018