Day One
The earth was a right old mess
When God began to fashion
Earth and heaven
After the fashion
Of an ancient near eastern divinity
The sky and sea
At the start of the thing
A real mess
But just the thing
For a god to bless
With order
Made to order
Order in the making
Ordered to make itself right
It was chaos
But divine words were spoken
Let light be
Let it be
Let it have the right to be
A world ordered to be
Made to be in order
Sometimes out of order
That’s the way of the world
A way for a world to be
With a god with a way with words
No need for a battle
No plant yet or cattle
Chaos ceased
Still no person or beast
Such a waste of space
Lacking in taste
Nothing yet there to be tasted
And no one and nothing to do the tasting
It wasn’t nothing
Not for nothing
It wasn’t yet something
Yet wasn’t it something
To behold that mess
And feel an urge to bless
To bestow order
To organize
To arrange
What an arrangement
This has turned out to be
A symphony of voices
Collisions of choices
Just beyond the horizon
Like the first glimmer of rising
Of a yet-unmade sun
As yet mere potentiality
Seen only by eye of divinity
What do you say to a world you find this way?
God said let it be
Light is just right
Just what a world needs
A world that needs to be just
Just right?
Not yet right, nor just
Things a world cannot be
Without beings like you and me
It won’t be long
Until we too come along
With our longing to belong.
Daybreak
On the first unbroken day
There was even evening
And morning
No mourning
Break of day
Unbroken day
Day One
A clear day
Though not really clear
How many hours
How many powers
Replete with possibility
Of showers and towers still to come
Full of potential
Evoking awe reverential
From those who look back on the story
Of a world of pristine glory
From our world in which more chaos abounds
We struggle for order
Like older ancient near eastern deities
Longing for simplicity
Imagined tranquility
Nostalgia for lost innocence
Yet if we’re honest
Really glad the story didn’t stop there
Light, bright, but no life
No war or hatred
No death or birth
Such utter simplicity
But no you or me
Day one is just the beginning
A light shining not for itself
But for a world yet to come
Let us shine
Make a world still to come
Let it be
Let there be light
Let this be day one
Once again
Let every day
Be day one
One day
The day breaking
On a world as yet unbroken
With potential to become something better
Than the way we found it
Let me speak the words
That will bring a glimmer of light
To order matter
To value what matters
To repair what was shattered
Until the mirror is mended
And reflects the light of the first day
And shows the way
To a day still to come
Let it be
Let this be
Day One.