[BNP/E3, 13 – 29-35]

 

The Creation

 

The God of men, a hyperbolic beast

Wishing to set before himself a feast

Of human hearts broken with fear and woe,

Determined once to create a “below”.

So calling all the angels, gently fleeting

Somewhere, and chasing themselves in a race,

God called them all tenderly one and each

And straight away He {…}

{…} a meeting

Just on the outside of time and space.

The God stood up made the following speech:

“Angels and suppers of celestial liquors

I’ve called you here together this not-day

Oh gentle noumena of priests and vicars

To Tell you this: attend to what I say” –

And then His word came, gloriously †

Angels, I am about to make a world!”

 

[29^v]

 

I’ll go to sleep upon my bed of nothing,

And you will have the goodness, fili mi,

To put an abat-jour upon the stars.”

When he had ended all these explanations

The Condescending Maker of Mankind

Received the angels’ warm congratulations.

And after this amid almost friendly laughs

And much contraction of the Hierarchy mind

 

They put in order all the paragraphs

Of God’s great future work. Then He went on:

“’Tis not enough to make the earth and sky

And all these minor things we have discussed

All is not finished, dreamy sons, I’m cursed

If I give not to more eternity

In an idea of cause, and then is well

For, not enough to frighten thee in life

I’ll give unto after that same, in hell.

 

[30^r]

 

“A world sublunar full of men (hear, hear);

A world where there are teeth and brain and claus,

Where there are rage, and hate and woe and fear

And many other kindred things (applause).

My plan is this: First I shall create light

Afterwards earth and sea and stars so bright

That they may well deserve a “twinkle-twinkle”

After that trees and plants of varied species

Then beasts of many kinds and many leers

And after that a greater beast called man.

 

“This is the plan” (Applause and prolonged cheers).

And in this work deserving so of praise

I will but take six days

No were the six days full of toil in high.

Upon the seventh after all these jars

 

[30^v]

 

You understand me well, I do suppose?”

Applause and cheers. And then the meeting rose

With a thanks-vote to chairman Gabriel.

 

[31^r]

 

{…} there came Parmenides

And dragged poor God into awful disgrace

But either the poor thinker died too soon

Or his deep work was left quite incomplete

For though he dragged God

He left the poor tyrant in space.

_____________________________________________

The long fall though space

Distorted them so much

They arrived here in unheavenly shapes,

But in the forms of cats and dogs and apes

But still as God meant them to be men

Like small elastics doubled up, they seem

With ugly

Thus † is conciliated with creation-doctrine.

_____________________________________________

So he sat all the day on catching flies

Which he threw down with this world of ours

And so in very few celestial hours

There were existing the fair earth upon

The elephant, the flea, the mastodon.

 

[31^v]

  

That is not how I wanted it at all

He launched the water-bottle at the ball.

It hit the sphere which now belongs to us,

And the glass being coarse and long the fall

That’s why the earth {…} mountains

Then God who looked infinite space along.

Finding how all his plans had gone all wrong,

Spat with great fury on[1] the tranquil earth

He hit the mark and thus the sea had birth.

Then he reflected: “If could not have fared

Worse, all because of Lucifer – the thief! –

If wish to send the earth all quite prepared

With men and animals and birds and trees…

I am almost a-falling into grief.”

But is done is done.

“Myself on Hell”

What? The blowing hell?

When a mosquito got into his eye

“Eureka!” cried he in celestial speech

Had I thought much, I never could reach[2]

 

[32^v]

________________________________________________________

And after this think you there were a pause?

Not in the least. The energetic Cause

Of our existence (which was not yet there)

Proceeded on his work with a story will birth {…}

___

Accordingly he said: Now I shall make

The earth; it is time

 

So that I soon may any sort of men the race

Then gazing suddenly into space

He behold, pure (great) † rage

A sphere therein many about and round

Why what the |*thunder| (which exists not yet)

 

[33^r]

 

Then sunk in sleepiness up to the built

{…} God that amusing old blood

Moving about his bedroom in the dark

Knocked down the washstand and the basis spilt

All its water on earth – this was the flood

And God stood wondering {…} stark

But happily with the water, in a rush,

Over to space had fallen God’s nail-brush.

And this nail-brush became old Noah’s ark.

 

[33^v]

 

God spat upon earth

|*(Beneath he was come after old.)|

And the † fell

 

Hence †

 

[34^r][3]

_________________________________________________________

Then, God, since all was chaos and was night,

Perceiving nowhere {…} a hint or trace

Being unable to find out where space

Might happen to be, said “I shall make light,

Firstly, so I may see my way about

And so, with care, lifting the careful butcher gate

Of heaven’s old door he peered uneasy out

But the darkness. Many were the matches,

Many and bad that

Our God had to strike

To find the whereabouts of time and space.

He grew quite furious[4] and † in the face

But things at last came out as he would like.

Walking along infinity[5] with care

 

[34^v]

 

For he was not of an explorer race

 

And crawling meanly on all forms, and feeling

In point of him with one uplifter hand

Slowly{…} dealing

He reached the place he wanted

And screwed a hark in infinite space’s ceiling.

Oh, mortal do reflect {…}

 

What dangers, God did run in the kind work

Of making worlds and {…} that would not sink

Law and confusion and distress and fear

Ponder and contemplate and pray and weep

And in your minds devout ever do keep

What God did for you in the times not near.

 

But to the story. Having spent a gimlet

In lowing holes in the decaying woods

God when the work was too much tiring him left

It all alone though not over secure

Then, damming counsels his own bones and blood,

 

[35^r]

   

He got up pained from his posture

Herd nearly slipped through old unableness

Oh world, had he but fallen you would have lost your

And Inint ableness and int ableness.

Then drawing from his job a lantern old

Which though not dirty, yet would stand more cleaning,

With awful carefulness our God |*upleaning|

Standing on tiptoe, hung it up i’th’cold,

Then glancing at the lightness in the night

With pleasure great, God sought the angels all,

Cohorts serene, school boyish, {…}

Somewhat bright

He pointed out, with pride and daring tall sight

A place where darkness[6] if be of looking fierce

{…} you looked {…} work

You might allow darkness was not so dark.

 

[35^v]

 

“What do you see?” God asked in great delight

“I can’t see nothing” Lucifer exclaimed.

“What”, God outshrieked, in pride and glory reasoned

“Why, you ignoring idiot, I’ve created light!”

“Oh” cried the angles all in a sweet chorus

Striving in vain to know where they’d to look

“Thy work is great, Oh God, that setst before us

Bright like the pages of a woodworm book

(Though yet unprinted).” “And is not clear?”

Asked God, with a |*side-phrase| into Lucifer

Which loom much rage, and latent victory.

“Quite clear”, the angels said with words of air

The thing’s as clear as most Kant’s[7] philosophy.

___

I do not {…} 

 

 

[1] on ^/to\

[2] [32^r]

Davideis

Davideis

Davideis

Davideis

Davis I

Davideis

Davideis Davideis

Davideis

attend

attend attend

attend

Ostend Ballidy

Ballidy Ballidy

[3]

___

___

 

Kant. Critique of Pure Reason.

___

 

[4] furious ^/wild\

[5] infinity ^/immensity\

[6] darkness ^/sight\

[7] Kant’s ^/most\