The Deity Pt II: The Word

Again, for Troy and Rupert . . .

Today my friend Rupert and I talked over tofu about the presence of God. How does the finite know when it is connecting with the infinite? Which human faculty--conscious or unconscious--is the primary vehicle for interaction with Divinity? We decided that if you believe in a personal God, then God can interact with you through any or all of your faculties. Of course, the trickiest for me has always been the first question--realizing when the interaction is happening, or not happening, or that it is happening all of the time. Here is one of my favorite poems about how God might interact with humanity.

Recitation

He did not fall then, blind upon a road,
nor did his lifelong palsy disappear.
He heard no voice, save the familiar,

ceaseless, self-interrogation
of the sore perplexed. The kettle steamed
and whistled. A heavy truck downshifted

near the square. He heard a child calling,
and heard a mourning dove intone its one
dull call. For all of that, his wits remained

quite dim. He breathed and spoke the words he read.
If what had been long dead then came alive,
that resurrection was by all appearances

metaphorical. The miracle arrived
without display. He held a book, and as he read
he found the very thing he'd sought. Just that.

A life with little hurt but one, the lucky gift
of a raveled book, a kettle slow to heat,
and time enough therefore to lift the book

and find in one slight passage the very wish
he dared not ask aloud, until, that is
he spoke the words he read.

--Scott Cairns