Monday, June 14, 2010

Faith-by Linda Pastan & Fate-by Carolyn Wells

Faith
by Linda Pastan

For Ira

With the seal of science

emblazoned

on your forehead,

like the old Good Housekeeping

Seal of Approval,

I believe what you tell me

about cells and molecules,

though I can't see them.

And though the language you speak

is full of numbers and symbols

I'll never understand;

though your tie is askew

and your hair unruly, still I believe

what you say about the size of the universe,

which is either expanding or contracting,

I've forgotten which already.

So if tomorrow you tell me

you made a small miscalculation,

that God indeed created the world

in 6 short days, then rested on the 7th,

that it was Eve who landed us

in all this trouble, I would believe you.

I would believe you

as I've always done before.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fate

by Carolyn Wells

Two shall be born the whole world wide apart,

And speak in different tongues, and pay their debts

In different kinds of coin; and give no heed

Each to the other’s being. And know not

That each might suit the other to a T,

If they were but correctly introduced.

And these, unconsciously, shall bend their steps,

Escaping Spaniards and defying war,

Unerringly toward the same trysting-place,

Albeit they know it not. Until at last

They enter the same door, and suddenly

They meet. And ere they’ve seen each other’s face

They fall into each other’s arms, upon

The Broadway cable car – and this is Fate!

2 comments:

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  2. Comment on the first poem: I like how in this poem it talks about both science and religion and how they both involve having faith. In science, we don't know for sure that molecules exist or cells exist but be trust that through what we have been taught they do. The same goes with religion, how do we know that there really is a God or all powerful being...that's something that involves having faith/believing that there is or isn't.

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