Poetry Magazine
“So many gods!”
So many gods!
They’re like books—you can’t read everything, you never know anything.
Happy the man who knows but one god, and keeps him a secret.
Every day I have different beliefs—
Sometimes in the same day I have different beliefs—
And I wish I were the child now crossing
The view from my window of the street below.
He’s eating a cheap pastry (he’s poor) without efficient or final cause,
An animal uselessly raised above the other vertebrates,
And through his teeth he sings a ribald show tune . . .
Yes, there are many gods,
But I’d give anything to the one who’d take that child out of my sight.
March 9, 1930
Source: Poetry (April 2009).
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This poem originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Poetry magazine
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Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Religion, Faith & Doubt, God & the Divine
Poetic Terms Free Verse
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