Incantations – Thoughts on A Pitiful Order

Rings of Uncertainty

I wrote this poem on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US World Trade Centres in 2007. The theme is slightly unrelated but I was wondering if we may have been too disobedient to the natural order. A lot of scientific reasons have been given for the supposed logic that there is no God. Could we have challenged an obvious truth and by some ensuing chaos, been probably jolted back to the realisation? I don’t know. The terrorist destruction of the Twin Towers alludes to the biblical linguistic chaos that characterised the building of the Tower of Babel. Yes, I already said unrelated, but somehow, these two events make me shudder when I think about towers. But poetry has meaning whether the poet intentionally puts it there or not. So this poem will make meaning to the issue to which it relates and the person who identifies with its story line will find it someday. It was written for a slow, religious, questioning chant. Shall man dare play God?

INCANTATIONS

Has the wind ceased
to fan my fire
and the rain to quench
the parched earth?
Does the matchstick belittle
the sun
And sleep mock eventual
death?
Will the snail duel the deer
And game dare the hunter?
Will nature bow to man
And man,
the man born of that old temptation
“You will be like God”
dare God to a duel?
Will he?