Because we all want to write more poems.
Contemplation On Diversity 2
How can there be only one way to know God?
One temple in which to worship
One path to walk
One place, even, to which we all go
After this --
Life!
If there is one thing God loves
It's diversity
Did God create one kind of
cavern
conifer
cactus
bog
Fashion one type of
feline
jellyfish
forest
deer
Form one sort of
orange
orchestra
orchid
gem
Contemplate one style of
seascape
saltiness
snowflake
reef
Imagine for a nanosecond
This God
Of diversity
Of quadzillions of stars planets microbes thoughts
Arranging one way
To know Me
Hear Me
Worship Me
Imagine that
Imagine that
A fools errand for sure
I'd rather lose myself
Contemplating a
Single coral reef
The colors in a changing sunset
The phosphorescence of a turbulent tide
Yes
That
- Michele McFadden's Shared Poems
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Comments
Benjamin Gorman
December 25, 2012
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'Twould be a sad world indeed
if there were but one type of each, one way to God.
Michele McFadden
December 25, 2012
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"Twould be..."
Thank you.
Michele McFadden
December 29, 2012
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Apostrophe
Fools needs an apostrophe. But did anyone notice the form of the poem? The rules I followed? Just curious because ever since I read about the form of the poems that many psalmists used I have been interested in creating new forms.
Clayton Medeiros
December 30, 2012
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I like the Sufi mystic's idea
I like the Sufi mystic's idea, "One God, many paths."
Michele McFadden
December 31, 2012
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Sufi mystics
And it is not just sufis who feel this way. Here's the words of one poem by St. Francis of Assisi: "So precious is a person's faith in God, so precious; never should we harm that. Because He gave birth to all religions." And a very few lines from a marvelous poem by another Christian mystic, St. Thomas Aquinas: "Dear, anything that divides man from man, earth from sky, light and dark, one religion from another...O, I best keep silent, I see a child just entered the room." One Christian theologian (Thomas Merton perhaps), has said that those who truly study any religion have more in common with those who deeply engage with their own, different faith path and tradition, than they have with people who attend "church, temple, or mosque" but don't truly study the teachings of that religion. I know it to be true. Perhaps someone can find the exact quote for me. I'll also post an article about such on Facebook.
Michele McFadden
May 22, 2018
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Correcting myself
I think it may've been Teilhard de Chardin, not Merton.
Michele McFadden
December 31, 2012
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More from the mystics
And here from a Catholic priest at an Interfaith retreat at Gethsemani in Kentucky: "This [the Dalai Lama's] simple, loving gesture touches some deep part of me, as does the Dalai Lama's encouragement of each of us to remain faithful to our own tradition. He says, "We need to experience more deeply the meanings and spiritual values of our own religious tradition--we need to know these teachings not only on an intellectual level but also through our own deeper experience. We must practice our own religion sincerely; it must become part of our lives." He adds that there is no competition among those gathered at Gethsemani, "except in implementation: We should compete in implementing in our lives what we believe."