The Sky is a Useless place for god to live.²
The ivory gods, the ebony gods, and the gods of diamond & jade,
Sit silently on the temple shelves while the people are Afraid, yet
The ivory gods and the ebony gods and the gods of diamond & jade,
Are only Silly Puppet Gods that people themselves have made.³
Creator, thou’rt Feebler than thy work—
Creator, thou’rt Sadder than thy creature—⁴
Earth rejects communication
With god’s Autocratic station—⁵
No bearded deity earns our Reverence,
No king of heaven gets our Patronage—⁶
Some keep the Sabbath going to church—
We keep it, staying Home.⁷
We burst like a Ruthless force, into the
Solemn church—and Scatter the congregation!⁸
Let ruling angels from their spheres be Hurl’d,
Being on being Wreck’d, and world on world!⁹
We have no religion except
Our own task of Being.¹⁰
¹ Regina Spektor, Genius Next Door
² Ursula K. Le Guin, The Birthday of the World
³ Langston Hughes, Gods
⁴ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Seraphim
⁵ Sylvia Plath, Insolent Storm Strikes at the Skull
⁶ Laura Hershey, Faith
⁷ Emily Dickinson, Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church
⁸ Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
⁹ Alexander Pope, Epistle 1
¹⁰ Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince