1 minute read
James B. Nicola
Define Divine
Once we define God as the unexplained and unexplainable, we apprehend, a little, Scripture, you, the human mind, the random paths of leaves or bags the wind tosses around, my reactions to you, the course that a tornado takes, you, the origin of everything, you, its end, i.e., the meaning of life, you, the unpredictability of you, and so forth. Science, on the other hand, may tell me how you got your skin, your eyes, your voice, perhaps your personality. Your laughter never fails, though, to surprise. That humor/human link I understand, but not how yours appears divine to me.
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James B. Nicola
Going
When they go before they’re gone, And right in front of you, They lend a life to dote upon And tear your heart in two.
And then they’re gone before they go: You don’t know what to say Or think or feel; nor do you know The proper prayer to pray.
Friends say it was, for them, release, But you, they do not sway. You want yours so to be at peace But please, please not today!
When, then? and how? Will you be there When they at last are gone? But if you were some other where, O, how would you go on?
Let it be not for weeks, but years: Because you love them so, You’ll gladly shed a life of tears As long as they don’t go—
For George and me the years were four, The months, then, forty-eight. We could have taken many more, But heaven would not wait.
But all that heaven takes is also, strangely, heaven-sent:
How clearly we have heard her call
Ever since she went.
