[Glenn Wright]

Agape

For even the hairs of your head have all been numbered.”
Matthew 10:30

Ponder with me the infinitude of God,
who sings each moment of life into existence—
ubiquity, omnipotence, omniscience,
revealed in Gospel and Upanishad.

He fathoms me completely. His embrace
could crush me to a singularity.
I am a seed that in eternity
Will fill the ten dimensions of time and space.

He grasps me inside out, yet lets me choose
to love Him back, or else to turn away,
to live with Him in heaven’s endless day,
or in my night, alone, if I refuse.

Every star in every galaxy
burns with the boundless love of God for me.
——————————-
Edits:
L10: to love Him back, or else to turn away > to love Him back, or else to turn away, (Matt)
L12: Or in my night, alone, if I refuse. > or in my night, alone, if I refuse. (Matt)

[David Callin]

Nicely done, Glenn, but my unbeliever's hackles rise in the second half of the poem. You may care little for that, but I have to say that lines 1-8 would work for me, just as they are.

Cheers

David

[Glenn Wright]

Thanks, David! I appreciate your ability to separate your theological and poetic sensibilities.
Glenn

[Carl Copeland]

Lots of interesting touches here, Glenn: God singing the world into existence (reminiscent of the Silmarillion), the macro of cosmology and micro of superstring theory. What struck me most is “He grasps me inside out”—not all that pleasant an image, but striking. The day of heaven and night of hell seemed a little cliché, although you’ve treated hell as a self-imposed lonely exile, which may not be new, but isn’t traditional either. As a devotional poem, I think this could really go over with the right audience.

[Glenn Wright]

Thanks, Carl—
“He grasps me inside out” sounds painful unless “grasps” is taken to mean “understands” instead of “seizes.” I wanted to do more to contrast the delicate tenderness of God’s love with its terrifying power, but didn’t have enough room in a sonnet.

[Carl Copeland]

I don’t know why I was so intent on reading “grasps” physically, but I like the ambiguity.

[Yves S L]

Hello Glenn,

For myself, this is a bookish and book learned conception of the concept of God; in the sense that an AI could write if if you fed it the right sort of literature and set it to be emotionally expansive in expression. For example, take the line "revealed in Gospel and Upanishad". Do the Hindus have the same notion of being separate from God in the first place? Because though the line appears to be "catholic" still if Hindus have conflicting conceptions of the relation of man to the Grand Intelligence which contradict the narrator's point of view, then we have unresolved conflict which undermines the premise of the narrator being sincere. or at the very least somewhat knowledgeable about different religions.

"Who is it that loves and who that suffers? He alone stages a play with Himself; who exists save Him? The individual suffers because he perceives duality. It is duality which causes all sorrow and grief. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering." ~ Anandamayi Ma

All that aside, I am finding a general lack of attention to craft in the lines that are being committed to the page., as if sentiment on its own was enough.

Also how did you count the "dimensions"?

I think you have the tools to write some bangers. Please take more care of the line and write some bangers!

Yeah!

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Yves—
I do not claim expertise in Eastern (or even Western) religions, but I do think that the notions of divine immensity and love are shared by Eastern and Western religious traditions. The Gospels and Upanishads both purport to reveal truths about God, who loves and wants to reveal Himself to us. That is the subject of my poem. I think, perhaps, you would have preferred me to write about something else, but the poem presents a point of-view that you will either find compelling or not.

To answer your question on how I came up with ten dimensions, the ten dimensions, as Carl noted, are borrowed from String Theory—a system that explains the universe as being made of strings in at least 10 up to as many as 26 physical dimensions whose vibrations produce harmonic effects that we interpret as quarks, electrons, etc. I use this as the basis for the assertion in line 2 that God “sings” us into existence.

Thanks for weighing in!
Glenn

[Roger Slater]

Just a suggestion, Glenn, but you might consider waiting to respond to comments rather than immediately responding to each post. That will give other people a chance to weigh in before they read your rebuttal, and it will speed up the process and maybe cut down a bit on the length of the threads you start. (Personally, I am dissuaded from commenting on your poems lately because I know that I will very quickly get a response from you explaining in detail what you intended and how my comment is wrong, and that's just a waste of breath. If you don't agree with a comment, you needn't convince anyone of anything. It's your poem, so you're the boss. Just use the comments that are helpful, and don't use the rest. But if you must comment, it's sometimes good to save your thoughts until you've heard from other people as well.)

[Glenn Wright]

Thanks for the advice, Roger. I have found some of your comments very helpful. Some, less so. But I appreciate your weighing in and most certainly don’t consider your carefully considered comments “wrong” or “a waste of breath.” Sometimes framing a response to a reader’s comment helps me understand my own intentions better. (I can’t help but see some irony in your statement that you are dissuaded from commenting on my poems because I don’t always take your advice, and your willingness to give me advice on when and how to respond to comments. I would think that you would conclude that such advice would be a waste of breath.)
Glenn