Spirit

In the beginning
there was the word
and the word was good,
and the word was one,
and the word was whole,
and the word was sound,
and the word was spirit.
In the beginning
the word moved
for the first time
and the word made good,
and the word made one,
and the word made whole,
and the word made sound,
and the word made spirit.

After the beginning,
the word would be
alone no longer
but made plentiful,
and made multiple,
and made divisible,
and made audible,
and made material.
After the beginning,
the word stretched out
and unfolded itself
and thus elongated,
and thus sustained,
and thus enumerated,
and thus lengthened,
and thus continued.

       *******

Before there were spirits,
sprites, fairies, pixies, fae,
ghosts, souls, specters, spooks,
there was spirit;
before there were minds,
reasons, causes, rationales, logics,
perspectives, opinions, points of view,
there was mind.
These are the words of our wisest:
that before there can be many,
there must be the one;
and before there can be anything,
there must be some,
for you cannot get something from nothing
(and there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).
The quandary is how to determine
what came before the beginning
and what will come after the end.
For if time is neither infinite
nor a circle, nor a thought,
then the end will be beginning
and from the spirit wrought.

As above, so below;
as before, after so.
If the beginning banged out in expansion,
the end will shrink back in a crunch.
If the word popped into being,
it will pop back out again.
What unfolded will rescind,
what elongated will retract,
what sustained will disperse,
what enumerated will dispatch,
what lengthened will shorten,
what continued will lack.
The plentiful will coalesce,
the multiple will unite,
the divisible will mesh,
the audible will sigh,
the material will come spirit,
the word will absorb all light.
But fear not, friends,
at the end of the long night:
all thresholds,
like coins,
have two faces.
If to the spirit we must return,
be sure that some day again the stars will burn.
The moon which wanes
becomes full and reborn;
though it sets in the evening
the sun also rises in the morn.
Though death will consume us
like fruit we contain the seeds
of our lives once again;
so take heart all -
we can be forever friends,
forever loves,
forever alive,
forever and ever once more
afresh, anew,
over and over,
by and by,
in permanent
spiritual
reiteration.