Lost Paradise
With so much turbulence on the geopolitical landscape, shocking reports outlining mass extinctions, racial and religious divisions and satanic references seemingly on the rise, some thoughts and feelings needed to be captured.
The 26 opening lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost (book 1), the Prologue and Invocation flooded in.. are we aware of our current fall from grace? That fall having been enabled by our blind/unquestioning obedience to materialism and a foggy minded obliviousness of the uniquely beautiful paradise we are losing. And so here is a modern day revision — I hope Milton will not mind.
Lost Paradise (compare and contrast)
Of our first blind obedience and the lure
To all that made us ‘free’, what crushing waste
Bought ‘wealth’ into our world, any yet we know
Without our garden we are without a plan
Oh help us, and refrain from hateful speech
Bring enlightened truth that sings to every one
Of mountain, and of ocean, sand and mire
Remind us, who first held the soil we need
And from where they came, the shades that made us whole
Arose from chaos, human powered will
Forthright and bold, with ancient notes foretold
Far down the passages of time; we knew
Of what we made and where we could belong
The answers in the light of nature’s law
And of the highest crowns the word would pass
Our dreaming respected by day and night
How in all our heavens did this loss occur?
Unwind the passages for love is sure
Entrust us, once more show us; of this we thirst
Till pounding hearts are eased from mighty dread
And sorrow sits correctly in its place
And fear no more swells: All in us that’s dark
Raise us from low vibration and report
For in our truth there is no argument
We may yet find our human governance
And justify our will to start again
K Smele