God In A Nutshell

God In A Nutshell

Someone ran across the stage.
His lips foamed, but I listened on,
till he put God into a nutshell
and people jumped the pews
Sometimes I watched God crack loose
from the worried rosaries in anxious hands,
from the snakes that never bit an honest man,
from the wars they said he raged and the pews saved
for the man with the most money.
He loved to sit on the mountain and sing
a soft breeze into the ocean,
light up his lava lamps, turn something upside down,
anything he could think of, to get their attention.
He loved to watch the sun in a topaz glisten,
feel the rain filter in a fine mist,
mouth a sideways, Jesus, Jesus,
these people never listen

Reviews

[Charles]

Well, Phibby, you've done well here. Often, pulling two stanzas (defined by me as sets of ideas or different themes) into one doesn't work well, but the switch from the misrepresentations of God in the first nine lines to the personification (without the artificial trappings) in the last eight lines works quite well, esspecially if one reads slowly enough. Maybe that's why it works - the first several lines just beg for slow reading (maybe even re-reading) which sets up the second set of lines nicely. The leat two lines are perfect. :-)

[Ed Hart]

speaking for the association of prodigal sons, some of us do...

[cest la vie]

Excellent.. God, Jesus.. everywhere, anywhere...

[James Paulin]

Sometimes we say nuts to God. Superb poem.

[Creepy Swine Guy]

I'll take the nutshell with the sunsets, the mist in mountain trees or the dozen different wild flowers in the spring meadow.

[Emily B]

I've seen God in the smallest and largest places and I've often wondered why I so seldom see him in churches . . .