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Eternally Grounded
There’s up and down, forward and back,
Of opposites we have no lack.
We have the dark and we have light,
And we have left as well as right.
We’ll choose to fight or run away,
Keep moving on or maybe stay.
Might be joyous or just be sad,
And naturally there’s good and bad.
If there is heaven, then is there hell?
And is there any way to tell?
So does the one must need the other?
Seems a hater needs no lover.
Would God create a prison so,
There’d be a place for us to go,
In case we’re bad and not so good?
And do not do the things we should?
I think that Hell is just a scold.
“You’d better do as you are told!”
From those who smugly have to say,
“It’s our way and no other way,”
“If you have been a naughty boy,
Then you’re beneath the hoi polloi,
But we are safe and always well,
Unlike your ilk still doomed to Hell.”
“You’ll be there for eternity,
Without an end that you can see,
Watching demons’ scary faces,
Stuck in awful humid places
“Like Hades, Avici, or The Pit,
Wherever forever flames are lit.”
But tell me why you hope to see,
Your fellow man in misery?
And when the universe has gone,
Dissolved down to the last neutron,
Will hell continue to go on,
A pain and torment marathon?
Would our Creator be so rash,
To toss His failures in the trash.
To drop the losers down the well,
And just give up and say “Oh Hell?”
I don’t believe that hell exists,
Save for lawyers or bigamists.
But if you hope someone must go,
It might be you, you never know.
.
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Frank Rable is a poet living in Pennsylvania.
Very funny, Frank. Gawd help a lawyer who’s also a bigamist!
I initially read these two lines without the comma, which somehow made Hell seem all the worse!
Watching demons’ scary faces,
Stuck in awful humid places
Thanks for the read.
Faces stuck in humid places, OMG! I didn’t see it. Yes, I did put the comma there this time. Merci, Dieu!
Heaven help the lawyer who is also a bigamist! Interesting observations of polar opposites and a final line moral tweak.
A comma, a pause,
Defines the thought,
whether I eat,
chicken or not.
A Man Eating Chicken
A clever condemnation of finding joy in others’ misery, Frank, but just in case it’s God’s way and no other way, I’ll keep up my efforts to avoid the place. In fact, now that you remind me of it, maybe I need better efforts to achieve the heavenly option.
“Just in case,” Margaret? I didn’t think you were acting under the possibilities of Pascal’s Wager.
I think you’re getting credit for the good poems you give to the world, Margaret. And I think you’re on the right track when you work toward the good and avoid the bad. I’ll bet you do it because you think it is the right thing to do. You treat others as you hope they will treat you. When somebody does you a favor, you pay it forward. Maybe some day after many people are given a good day, one after another, it comes back around to you. Doesn’t that sound better?
I think you may be referring to Pascal’s Wager though. Fair enough, it’s pragmatic. Last thing: If you’ve read the short story,” Those who walk away from Omelas”, it was an influence for me. It made me ask what I would do, or believe.
I’m no gambler, Joe and Frank. Aiming for the infinite gain, but with the sure knowledge that great investment and the help of another (indeed, of many others) are necessary. Thanks, Frank, for the kind words about my poetry, and for telling of your own history.
The whole idea here could have been written with far fewer words and many fewer stanzas.
Perhaps. What about this?:
Some favor hell,
But I do not.
It has the smell,
Of Fabulist rot.
But see, I’m trying to express the idea in a less harsh way, for the benefit of those who find hell to be a comforting thought. They like it so much that they are always recommending it as a destination, even for folks they don’t like.
But C.B., thank you for reading my poem and sharing your thoughts. Whether I like it or not, I will probably keep economy of words first and foremost in my writing from now on. Oh no, my nose just grew! :—)
Frank, this poem really hits home. It stirs up some deep questions. Imagine a father with a big family, and he decides one of your siblings deserves a steam iron pressed into his back—forever. What kind of bond could you even have with a dad like that? Who demands love with a threat hanging over your head? Would you look up to him, want to be like him, or even adore him? If you did, what would that say about you? Are you really cut from the same cloth? This poem doesn’t just poke at the idea of hell—it makes me wonder about the kind of love we’re supposed to feel, and who we turn into when we accept love on those terms.
Thank you Mike. My feelings about the concept of hell are real. It’s a complicated subject, isn’t it? I’m still working on poetically expressing my thoughts and opinions. Evan has been very patient with me. Thank you Evan! You should see some of the poems I submitted. Ha ha, but you never will.
I liked your “what if” metaphor. I will say this: I won’t associate God with eternal punishment. I will instead blame the minds who thought of human sacrifice, and when that didn’t work, of Hell, Tartarus, Gehenna, Hades, The Pit, Avici, Tophet, Sheol, Avernus, Kur, Mictlan, Cocytus, Jahannam, Acheron and Yama’s Domain. I apologize to any belief systems that I inadvertently left out.
Hilarious Frank and very clever. I love the, “Naughty boy/ Hoi Polloi” rhyme and the hell-bound lawyers and bigamists is a tremendous image. and by the way, it ends all too soon. Thanks for a great read.
Thank you Jeff, for the kind words. As to the poem, I knew the end was nigh, when to paraphrase the Bard: The last thing I’ll do, I’ll tease all the lawyers.