God brought the beasts before Adam
and he gave to each a name:
bull, pig, goat, sheep, dog.
His children called them by their names,
and lo! they came when called.
So shamans and savants said
there is power in words;
what we can name we can control.
God spoke to Moses from the burning bush,
and Moses asked what is your name?
God gave no answer but I AM.
So sorcerers and sages took
the Tetragrammaton to be
a name to conjure with.
Their awful arcana casts still its
monstrous shadow in the minds of men.
I sat in schoolrooms memorizing many
words coined by theorists and theologians
that they might master mysteries:
relativity, evolution, coinherence.
Now I sit in silence, seeking the center.
I need no words to call my God to me.
I cannot call, I do not need to call God,
for God is always and already here.
Robert F. Tredray
Evanston, IL
