In the beginning...the blog

Courtesy of gnuckx via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnuckx/
From the blogsite of Justin P. Lambert, Writer

I like this poem a lot.  It was published in Coping With Terminal Stillness and it’s basically a blatant re-telling of the creation story from Genesis, but applied to the creative work of writing in the 21st century.  It’s kind of silly and sad in equal measures.

CREATION

The page is blank
with darkness in its bright white,
formless and waste
with a spirit moving to and fro
over the surface of the paper

And I proceeded to say
“let there be light!”
and ink appeared, darkening the white,
lighting the dark
and I came to see that it was good
and I went to sleep.

And I went on to say
“let there be space between the words,
and let a division appear between the thoughts,”
and there was, and there is:
A comma, indentation, a sentence, a paragraph
subheads and chapters
Thoughts in bite-size chunks
and I came to see that it was good

And I went on to say
“let the thoughts be brought together,
and given concrete form and publishable means,”
So my fingers found the keyboard and
look! an e-mail query letter followed by another
and another
and another
and another, each according to its kind
And the world began to give forth rejection letters,
each according to their kind, and delightful to look upon
and I came to see that it was not good
but it was ok

And I went on to say
“why should I continue to work and sweat and type and grumble
without fair pay and respect and reward?”
And nothing happened.

And I went on to say
“let my words live on the stage of the world,
and let my thoughts fly into forever on wings of electrons,”
and a blog came to be.
And it came to be evening,
and it came to be morning,
and I kept typing.

And I went on to say
“let us make sites in our image,
according to our likeness, and
let them have in subjection the blogs and the e-books
and the paper books and the New York publishing houses
and every kind of marketing we’ve ever learned before.
And I proceeded to join Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn
And it came to be evening and it came to be morning
and I never got around to writing.
And I got to see that it was no good.
But I kept doing it any way.

After that, I saw everything I had made
and look!  It was very good.
And I could not figure out why or how this happened.
Because during these six chaotic days/years/lifetimes
I have been so intent on creating for a purpose
that I have forgotten how to create for creating
and yet, from the myopic heaven
of my “artist” mind, I have still managed
to make beautiful things appear and change and shine
And I know you will do what you feel is best with them,
and I may never know.
You may worship me in my thoughts, on the page
or in your mind.
But I will not be any less a creator for that.

And it came to evening

and it came to be morning

and I’m tired, but happy

and I still create…

alone