Ecclesiastical Agnosticism

And so what if it is meaningless?

So what if all this life is nothing but

Carbon, flickers of electricity, and other

Complicated things?

Should the trees cease to unfurl their leaves,

To turn sunlight into food, to house

caterpillars and ants?

Should the birds stop singing, stop nesting

And flying? Should 

Fireflies be still, no green floating

Lights in the grass at dusk?

Should wolves cease howling, fish sink to the bottom

And all the flowers stop blooming?

After all, isn't all this meaningless?

Should rain stop falling, and rivers stop running,

And oceans recede back into the earth?

Perhaps no music should ever have been 

Played; no culinary craft discovered

Language is certainly frivolous in light of all

This Great Big Nothingness, and, oh!

Darling, how dare you ever savor

Some sweet kiss

When you know

"It didn't mean a thing"?

Balderdash. Cowardice - this idea

That when meaning is not

Explicit

It doesn't exist at all.

What nonsense that meaning given

Is less noble than

Meaning found.

Can you imagine a world with no wings?

Wings allow animals to fly but do not

Mean "freedom" - until we say they do,

Until we say flying means freedom to us

Then, all of sudden, living in a world with so many wings

-Feathered, leathery, black, colorful, opaque-

Well, it makes you feel something

And such a wonder it is to feel, yes?

To hear and see and touch and understand?

What if we're alive to sing songs, to name colors,

To get to know the Earth like a 

Lover desires to know their Beloved?

What if we're alive to be artists, linguists,

and mathematicians? To unravel 

The mysteries of this vast, unfolding Universe,

And still to notice the butterfly resting in the sunlight?

Quiet eyes and

Knowing smiles

We exhale so leaves can inhale

And we're wise to notice

How graceful

The fawn is

Even as death looms

In all the forest's shadows