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Adam and Eve Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams And our desires. Although she strews the leaves Of sure obliteration on our paths, ... --from Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" In Eden fair did Adam and Eve live in perfect harmony. "No plant or animal devoureth we, only ripe fruit as falls from the tree." By bright-green lily-pads in sphagnum bogs the herons waded gracefully, bullfrogs croaked their deep, clear calls; bluebells, delicate yellow buttercups were rampant; larks sang in the mulberries. "No pain or hunger knew we there, only the sameness of Eden fair." Even the bounty, the beauty, the civility, the rich perfection, stretching out like the wall of the great oval garden, day after day, year after year to eternity, grew tiresome. "No shame in our nakedness knew we ... nor lust, nor desire, nor carnality." It's the exogamous, the unfamiliar, which stirs in us the deepest passion, the basso continuo of mortality which gives to desire its piquancy --of which they knew nothing in deathless Eden. "We wanted to look outside the wall. We didn't mean from God's grace to fall." Their lack of control, their disrespect invited tragedy.... But to deny what one feels, to deny what one is is to risk even greater calamity.... "God expelled us from the Garden. Now we'll know death and all that's human." Discord ... despair.... Are you better off? Coaxing grain from the cracked, parched earth? Maybe you paid too much for your freedom?... Maybe you wish you were back in the Garden?... "There be good inside the Garden; there be good outside.... There is no perfect Eden."
0
Jan 21, 2018
Jan 21, 2018 at 7:28 PM UTC
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams And our desires. Although she strews the leaves Of sure obliteration on our paths, ... --from Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" In Eden fair did Adam and Eve live in perfect harmony. "No plant or animal devoureth we, only ripe fruit as falls from the tree." By bright-green lily-pads in sphagnum bogs the herons waded gracefully, bullfrogs croaked their deep, clear calls; bluebells, delicate yellow buttercups were rampant; larks sang in the mulberries. "No pain or hunger knew we there, only the sameness of Eden fair." Even the bounty, the beauty, the civility, the rich perfection, stretching out like the wall of the great oval garden, day after day, year after year to eternity, grew tiresome. "No shame in our nakedness knew we ... nor lust, nor desire, nor carnality." It's the exogamous, the unfamiliar, which stirs in us the deepest passion, the basso continuo of mortality which gives to desire its piquancy --of which they knew nothing in deathless Eden. "We wanted to look outside the wall. We didn't mean from God's grace to fall." Their lack of control, their disrespect invited tragedy.... But to deny what one feels, to deny what one is is to risk even greater calamity.... "God expelled us from the Garden. Now we'll know death and all that's human." Discord ... despair.... Are you better off? Coaxing grain from the cracked, parched earth? Maybe you paid too much for your freedom?... Maybe you wish you were back in the Garden?... "There be good inside the Garden; there be good outside.... There is no perfect Eden."
Hear Jerry/Lucius read this poem (at https://humanist-art.org/old-site/audio/SoF_095_adam_and_eve.MP3 ). This poem is part of the Scraps of Faith collection of poems ( humanist-art.org/audio/SoF_095_adam_and_eve.MP3 ).
#adam#and#eve#eden#god#human#death#freedom#expelled
lucius-furius
Written by
lucius-furius
67/M/Evanston, IL
Jan 21, 2018
Jan 21, 2018 at 7:28 PM UTC
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