j'ova: in search of a four-letter word

god was
and is
was god once man?
quiz: who? me or you?

as thought grew    he grew too
smaller on earth    mind flew to extremes
means became ends    god wills    bends occasions
so he knew
and i saw with my inward eye my god high
-er than the sky blue dazzling light empire of might
-y universality

but god is
dead
whither fled?    to earth    trees    stones    hung flung in orbit
dreams of birth    trailing cloud patterns of white marestails

tales return us to our senses    fruits of experiences
like pagan gods inhabiting the groves
four-footed loves    cloven-hoofed and tails
traveller's stories to frighten us upstairs

now we laugh    you me    knowing better
still    god walks on all fours    or in trees    or closer to bosom nature
hearing my footsteps    each superficial sigh    inconsequential groan
i own:    sown    homegrown    reap     crop    failure or profit    my lot!
but god is not any what we can think of
scratching heads to look interstitially
we search behaviour for our saviour    therapy-wise
psychoanalyze    experimentalize    research
as if doomed and left in the lurch
and the word    four-letter lurks
j'ova (in quotes) unsaid
at the point where reasoning has fled

back to earth:    me laughing    you loving    seldom proving
lark floating above the mean air
meaning clear    eye ear tongue touch feeling
present to senses    to be aware

it it him her or anonymity?
j'ova (in quotes) unsaid
hi!    high-up or low-down    near or far
beyond query and hypothesis
seems:    as close as just beyond reach
ah! to vanish in a frown

196_ rev. mmvii