The Earth Turns South/God in the Road
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GOD IN THE ROAD
"And God made man in His image; in the image of God created He him."
Cease your tiresome debating about God;
You who would know Him, there is a surer way:
Come walk with me upon the road,
And I will show you His image again and again,
And from these you can truly picture Him.
You who would know Him, there is a surer way:
Come walk with me upon the road,
And I will show you His image again and again,
And from these you can truly picture Him.
God in this man with springy step that hurries past,
In the man who slouches by, face down, gnawing his frayed mustache,
In the shrill-voiced newsboys,
In the woman lolling impatiently in the auto blocked by the passing hearse,
In the watchful servitor at the steering-wheel,
In the cold dumb upturned face in the hearse.
In the man who slouches by, face down, gnawing his frayed mustache,
In the shrill-voiced newsboys,
In the woman lolling impatiently in the auto blocked by the passing hearse,
In the watchful servitor at the steering-wheel,
In the cold dumb upturned face in the hearse.
God in the tired faces of home-hurrying shopgirls,
In the eyeless woman offering gum,
In the beggar crumpled up in the doorway, breathing heavily, with closed eyes,
In the hounding policeman, in the watery-eyed judge he lies to,
And in the street-walker he has arrested, who shrinks beside him.
Each face that we pass is the image of God—
Now an emaciated remnant of features,
A weak chin, a chubby infant's smile,
Now hairy, now bald, now erect, now doubled with pain,
Now keen-visioned, but oftener miserly and grasping,
Now white, now a slant-eyed yellow-brown, now black-faced and thick-lipped.
In the eyeless woman offering gum,
In the beggar crumpled up in the doorway, breathing heavily, with closed eyes,
In the hounding policeman, in the watery-eyed judge he lies to,
And in the street-walker he has arrested, who shrinks beside him.
Each face that we pass is the image of God—
Now an emaciated remnant of features,
A weak chin, a chubby infant's smile,
Now hairy, now bald, now erect, now doubled with pain,
Now keen-visioned, but oftener miserly and grasping,
Now white, now a slant-eyed yellow-brown, now black-faced and thick-lipped.
I am glad to know God.
I thought Him something different, all-powerful, cosmos-creating.
Which of these furtive faces could even see a cosmos?
I thought Him all-knowing, immortal;
And vaguely He is all these.
I thought Him something different, all-powerful, cosmos-creating.
Which of these furtive faces could even see a cosmos?
I thought Him all-knowing, immortal;
And vaguely He is all these.
But I shall not pray to God now,
Nor raise a gaudy temple to Him;
I shall help build Him a house to live in,
And He shall help me with mine.
Nor raise a gaudy temple to Him;
I shall help build Him a house to live in,
And He shall help me with mine.