Creation
And Lo! The brothers, Life, be cleft in twain;
One Spirit, Earth the other, paired alive,
Yet sep’rate these eternal orphans reign;
Fraternal cries toward blackened waters dive.
The brother, Spirit, strains his ear to hear,
If only but a whisper brought to him;
Yet falling in despair hears nothing near
to clear from fear his lips of trembling rim.
But then a “human” vision he did think;
Yes, beings bred to bridge the gap we’ll seed.
We’ll talk to them, the Earth and I, like ink,
Upon the parchment of their mind we’ll read.
So Spirit blew two souls down to the land,
His brother made them casings out of sand.
Posted Sep 18, 2019, 9:52 PM UTC
12
Dang, I love a good creation story.
I like the 'paired alive, yet seperate' earth and soul. It's an interesting concept -- the material, earthen world and the spiritual as sort of a mind/body dichotomy writ large. I'm curious about the "blackened waters" -- is this part of a larger poem that gives context for that image? It's powerful.
Overall the opening reminds me of the original dichotomy in Genesis between the heavens and the earth, and the image that follows of God as a breath over the water. Not that it's the same, but that we're there, with one thing and another (yet un-named), and then a voice over water. Only in this instance, there's no creator per se -- just the brothers, and whatever force has divided them.
I like the idea of life coming into being as a bridge between spiritual and sublunar worlds. It's got the longing inherent in Aristophanes' story in the Symposium, without the physical comedy.
"Casings out of sand" is a gorgeous turn of phrase.
I'd love to read more of this!