Tag: God the Verb by Stephen Denham

What the Lord God most holy saw,
in a clear moment, one cloudless morn,
was a revelation to even his boundless mind …

that to address the crime of His calumny
throughout the ages, as an indolent despot,

required but the simplest act …
less than even a twitch for a being
of His almighty stature, in fact;

for noun-hood was indeed a lonely plight
that allowed all creation to construe
that for all God’s omnipotence,
there was nothing of consequence
He could actually do …

and so, like Adam,
He would take a wife (as it were)
not so much worldly as word-ly,

by creating “God” the verb …

what better way to un-do the sleight
that one ‘does’ not … than partnering
the most active lady in grammar,
a doer without whom God the noun …

(the Word that began the beginning,
that was, and was with)

would remain a fop, a prevaricator …

now his subjects, like God himself,
could do more than goad, gain or get …
they could “God” or be “Godded”,

as in:

“To make or be made pure or purified,
holy or cleansed, redeemed or sacred”.

Yes, a good day dawned,
one of God’s doing …

until word of a new verb in town
reached Lucifer, who’d been around
it has to be said …every bit as long
as God the noun;

thus, in the name of evil,
and ecological semantics,
fresh use was made of “un”the prefix
giving “un-do-godders” their mandate:

“To make impure, unclean or corrupt,
to debauch, defile or desecrate.”

Mercifully therefore, what the Almighty saw,
one other fresh moment, one blue-sky morn …
yet another revelation to His boundless mind

was that whatever He did, could be undone …
in a kingdom of free will, every verb had its antonym,
just as for good to exist … there had to be sin.

And so the good Lord finally realised
something that had taken eons to take in …
that even with omniscience, He’d never
fully understood, that:

“He created man in his own image …
in the image of God he created him”

meant not:
that man was perfect,
or not made up of darkness and light,
of joy and shame, and pain and remorse …
or not His adversary.

For God dwelt in heaven,
and man upon earth,
where nouns were terrorised
by unrepentant verbs!

So once again, as any Creator should …

“God saw everything that he had made …
and behold, it was very good”.