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 grow leaves,

To breathe in your exhale, to house

animals great and small?

Should the birds stop singing, stop nesting

And breeding? Should 

Fireflies lie down, no green

Light in the grass at night?

Should rabbits be still, wolves become quiet,

And all the fish sink to the bottom?

No? They shouldn't? But isn't it all meaningless?

 

Should rain stop falling, and rivers stop moving,

And oceans recede back into the earth?

Perhaps no music should ever have been 

Played, and no culinary craft discovered?

Language is certainly frivolous in light of all

This great big nothingness, and

Oh, Darling, how dare you ever

Savor a sweet kiss when you

Know the answer is always,

"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

And 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