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Poetry

Including a Line by Frank O’Hara

September 20, 2015

It has been a bad decade for God.
To begin with, we are losing women.
There is no formula for this.
If nothing else, it is a puzzle.

Think, for example, about the experience
Of intense nausea. You are in the grip of it.
Stay standing, I tell myself,
Spinning like a fluid in a centrifuge.

This is the famous problem of evil.
In the final out there, my body maintains
Its gravitational bearings. We should be careful
Not to draw overarching conclusions.

The elderly are more curious about hell.
Mine is as good as it gets, albeit with pink drinks.
My mother set out little vases of cigarettes.
There was raucous cheering and calculated yelling.

That seems a lifetime ago. I ended up
Observing the spinning constellation.
We should all be so lucky. Many people
Were curious about what that meant.

Jesus does not get the most
Attention. Some religious people
Have asked, When does he sleep? And,
Impossible, right? This is hardly definitive proof

You will find calm amid the chaos,
The provisional way of things now. Grace
to be born and live as variously as possible.
Things get really interesting when we look.

 

From the New York Times, September 20, 2015. “Googling for God,” Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. “Why I Use Trigger Warnings,” Kate Manne. “A Toxic Work World,” Anne-Marie Slaughter. “How Federer Thrives in an Age of Disruption,” Gerald Marzorati. “Brain Tumor as Zen Master,” Adrienne Brodeur.

 

 

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