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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Of His Experiment

I've made this poem to be precisely phrased (I had Ben Jonson in mind) and borrowed Sir Walter Scott's famous lines from Marmion for the first two lines. The purpose is to satirize an omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent God. My poem discusses the Old Testament, New Testament and Koran, human knowledge and struggle, the exploration of the universe as well as philosophy, and facing the fact that we may never gain a full and true answer, all from the point of view of an objective observer seeing the human race as if it were in the midst of a sadistic and ludic experiment.

"Of His Experiment"

Oh, What a tangled web we weave!
When first we practice to deceive.
Plant the seed of evil early on
So they know not as time goes on
Deus ex machina makes no remark,
But give an inkling, a hope, a spark.

Then steal the knowledge from their minds!
To watch them squabble and war and find
That from their nascence they did not know
And never will, too strong the row:
The inquisition which they explore,
Is but a contraption, and nothing more.

This poem was also published in The Libertarian Review.

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