Poem: "Beyond Babel"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the November 5, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "Angel" square in my 11-1-19 card for the People-watching Bingo fest.


"Beyond Babel"


In the beginning,
God made the world
not with a Word

but with math,
and out of math
came music, and
they were languages
all of their own.

When the sons of Adam
and daughters of Eve
spread over the Earth,
they spoke one language,
counted the beasts of the field
and sang praises to the Lord.

Then they raised a tower
toward Heaven, and
God was displeased.

When the Tower of Babel
fell, the languages of mankind
were confused, but math and music
remained as intelligible as ever.

For these were the languages
with which God had made the world,
and there was no taking them back out
of it ever again -- the math was in
the seeds of every sunflower and
the music in the tongue of every bell.

The angels wondered how long
it would take the humans to realize
they could still understand each other.

Comments

Re: This is lovely! =D

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's rare to find a species that has NO concept of either, because they're both so diverse. Geometry is a form of math, for instance, that doesn't even have to involve numbers -- it's there in the shape of rivers and the twirl of galaxies. Music and song come in many forms, and even animals do them.

But for some, the world might be experienced primarily in scent or touch or some other sense. The world will reveal its patterns to them in their own way.