The names of God and especially those of His representative
Who is called Jesus or Christ according to holy books and
someone's mouth
These names have been used, worn out and left
On the shores of rivers of of human lives
Like the empty shells of a mollusk.
However when we touch these sacred but exhausted
Names, these wounded scattered petals
Which have come out of the oceans of love and fear
Something still remains, a sip of water,
A rainbow footprint that still shimmers in the light.
While the names of God were used
By the best and the worst, by the clean and the dirty
By the white and the black, by bloody murderers
And by victims flaming gold with napalm
While Nixon with his hands
Of Cain blessed those whom he condemned to death,
While fewer and fewer divine footprints were found
on the beach
People began to study colors,
The future of honey, the sign of uranium
They looked with anxiety and hope for the possibilities
Of killing themselves or not killing themselves, of organizing
themselves into a fabric
Of going further on, of breaking through limits without stopping
What we came across in these blood thirsty times
With their smoke of burning trash, their dead ashes
As we weren't able to stop looking
We often stopped to look at the names of God
We lifted them with tenderness because they reminded us
Of our ancestors, of the first people, those who said the prayers
Those who discovered the hymn that united them in misfortune
And now seeing the empty fragments which sheltered those
ancient people
We feel those smooth substances,
Worn out and used up by good and by evil.
Notes
*Gautama is Buddha's family name
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Comments
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Very deep poem. I'm thinking about a book, I believe it is entitled Sunflower, in which Jewish Holocaust survivers were interviewed about their ability to forgive and if they were able to have faith in God again. So many bad things happen in the "names" of God/faith that it is easy to forget a True God is above being used like we are led to think. "While fewer and few divine footprints were found on the beach/People began to study colors...." is so well crafted. People went beyond the "names" and sought substance, and discovered the essense of God. Neruda really covers the gamut with the abuse that has taken place in the name of God, and he leaves a positive closing with, "We feel thos e smooth substnaces,/Worn out and used up by good and by evil." Despite everything, people find God and hope and ultimately, faith.
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I like how this poem pointed out that the names of God have been pretty much worn out by now, but they still have meaning, even if that meaning is only connected to the people who once used them.
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I like this poem quite a lot. I haven't seen anything resembling this sentiment expressed in English before.
People do often believe that because something has been experienced before it hasn't value or meaning still. Particularly since there have been corrupt commercial Christians from time to time some people believe that faith is invalidated and a waste of time-in error I should point out.
For example cosmology is not invalid because it has been researched from pre-history already. It is always new as the experience of God is always new for each individual in each lifetime.
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