The Great Controversy book, with bonus shot of my injured thumb.

Several months ago I received this book in the mail for free – a generous deed for the good of humanity, I presume, as apparently mine is one of many souls in the world currently in need of saving. Rather than adding another piece of trash to the landfill, or donating the 500th copy to Goodwill, I decided this book was a collage-maker’s dream with its strange and unique phrases. So I kept it, and began removing these choice phrases from the confines of the pages with my trusty exacto knife. Kind of like excising tumors, only in reverse: removing the good parts from the cancerous mass. After two or three hours, an inadvertent poem formed.

Note: no offense intended to any religious folk out there. I really don’t care what beliefs people adopt in order to ease the harshness of their earthly lives (most people would deem my own beliefs utterly wacky, I imagine). I’m just not into the hellfire and damnation variety of religious propaganda. Or proselytizing – even passively, as with a book appearing in my mailbox. When that happens, I’m going to make collages and/or cut-up poetry out of it. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it’s going to be.

Our Gift to You

Splendid churches
infected with
finite minds
choosing darkness…

What indignation
intermingled with
the uplifting of humanity!

What must be the fruit of
independent thought
that are in the graves!

The lightning flashes,
sneeringly,
leaving the darkness
more dense…

Anticipating the loneliness,
when the luxury of the world
becomes inadequate.

(This detestable rottenness
in their pursuit of pleasure.)

Time was short
to little groups gathered,
in costly and fashionable attire,
for less worthy purposes.

and did they know it?
and did they feel it?

The discord which
would have manifested
its own peculiar dress
to the whole universe,
from fear rather than from love.

I desire to live!
cries the lost soul
darkened with the smoke,
the terrible destruction of life.

(So strong was this feeling
to enter the divine.)

Should we be surprised that
his heart was broken?
Blotted from existence
in the midst of
the falsehood uttered
for the good of the human mind.

The influence of
a higher state of existence
filled with love:
the souls of all men
would have lived forever,
away into the bliss.

Spirituality is called
the serene joy,
an inspiration,
a love of the world
(the whole wicked world).

The same spirit that
would often linger
with the masterpieces
of the seasons,
to the blue skies,
the entire universe,
the whole state of existence…

These are everywhere,
these writings of love.

So precious a talent
in their true light,
can alone comprehend
the perplexity of the universe.