Hear me
read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
Watch me
read
the poem as
a YouTube video.
Video Music:
Iced Spring Theme.
By Peter Rudenko.
Performed by Peter Rudenko
at the
Free Music Archive
under an Attribution license.
Alpha List
Religious
Poems
Thanksgiving
Poems
About This
Site
Poems for
Free
Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon
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When God's as real as Santa
Claus,
And temples are works of art;
When the Bible's living literature,
And the Universe has no heart:
One feels grateful,
But to whom?
When the ritual vestments of
faith
Are seen only from outside;
And the strength to live in the void
Becomes a matter of pride:
One feels grateful,
But to whom?
When life seems bursting with
beauty,
But everything's accidental;
When calling the noumenal "Thou"
Seems impossibly sentimental:
One feels grateful,
But to whom?
When death is an absolute
end,
And pain lets one barely get by;
Prayer's a harmless delusion
And the solace of heaven a lie:
One still feels grateful,
But to whom?
This human urge to say
thank you,
Unavoidably orphic,
Requires, just for a moment,
A Creator, anthropomorphic:
So that one can feel grateful
To Whom.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
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