If Every God

for Eliot Katz

If every God is omniscient, why don’t all Gods speak

of the omniscience of all other Gods?

If every God is the realization of the equality of all beings,

why don’t all Gods realize the equality of all Gods?

If every God’s commandments are embraced as holy truth,

why aren’t all Gods’ commandments holy truth?

 If every God is a celestial medicine, why aren’t all

Gods the celestial medicine of all other Gods?

If every God is a universal random bohemia, why aren’t all

Gods the universal bohemia of all other Gods?

If every God is a terrible perdition, why don’t all Gods speak

with terror of the perdition of all other Gods?

If every God promises peace & the rewards of afterlife, why

don’t all Gods promise the promise of all other Gods?

If every God is within and without all that is born & unborn, why

don’t all Gods reside within & without all other Gods?

If every God offers infinite comfort to the lowly & most high,

why don’t all Gods comfort infinitely all other Gods?

If every God admires good works done freely, why don’t all

Gods admire the good free works of all other Gods?

If every God knows no impossibility, why don’t all Gods

know that all Gods know no impossibility?

If every God tastes like honey cured in the mouth, why don’t

all Gods taste the honey cured in the mouth of all Gods?

If every God created the world in its own image, why don’t

all Gods see their image in every God’s world?

If every God has its own chosen people, why don’t all Gods

hear the cry of all other chosen Gods?

If every God sings the glory of creation, why don’t

all Gods sing the creations of all other Gods? 

If every God is a remote language sobbing, why don’t all

Gods sob for the remote language of all other Gods?

If every God is a maze of nearness, why don’t all Gods

maze the nearness of all other Gods?

If every God lights the shade of darkest faults, why don’t

all Gods light the shade of all other Gods’ faults?

 If every God resides upon a cosmic mountain throne, why don’t

all Gods reside upon the cosmic mountain enthroned?

If every God is an uninterrupted consent, why don’t all Gods

give their uninterrupted consent to all other Gods?

If every God is a soldier of the past coming to protect you from

what has already happened, why aren’t all Gods soldiers

protecting all other Gods from what has already happened?

If every God hates blasphemy, why don’t all Gods hate

the blasphemy ascribed to other Gods?

If every God plagues the world for taking the name of God in vain,

why don’t all Gods plague the taking of the name of all

other Gods in vain?

If every God reins supreme, why don’t all Gods enjoy the

supremacy of all other Gods?

If every God is far more than a love far more than this, why

don’t all Gods love far more than this all other Gods?

30 January 2002

[Published in Quien Sabe Mountain:

Poems 1998-2004. © 2004 by Jim Cohn.]

APPEARS IN

Quien Sabe Mountain
(MAP Publications, 2004)

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