For a Gwendolen and Augustine

[Jimmy O'Connell]

For a Gwendolen and Augustine
With no sun, a Gwendolen will become
Self-absorbed in the demands that
She be the sun to all orbits.
It is in a need for the sun
An Augustine will realise
The restlessness never quieted.

It was a sun that formed both, their
Dissatisfactions and frustrations,
With hope of a harmonious orbit.
It is the sun that must give answer,
Or both continue in the pain that can
Never be eased. There may be no sun,

Nor orbits, nor hope of harmony, but
Woman and man in the idea of the sun.

[Lazysuit]

I wondered about God while reading your poem several times, wondering. Your kiss off quote left me thinking that yes, it is He that the he and she of your poem are in need of. Excuse me if this is a little glib. I've only been reading your poem for two minutes. You must have been writing it longer. Personally I'd say it's brilliant, but I don't like dishing out platitudes, and i always call things i don't understand brilliant just in case. But, well, thanks, that's something to come back to. x

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Thanks Lazysuit,
The Gwendolen is George Eliot's heroine Gwendolen Harleth, who is probably the most self-centred character in all fiction, but fascinating all the same; of course, the Augustine is Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo...
The background influence is the poetry of Wallace Stevens, especially his 'Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction', and one of my favourite lines from It Must Be Abstract:

There was a muddy centre before we breathed
There was a myth before the myth began,
Venerable, articulate and complete.

From this the poem springs

What Dawkins and Hitchens seem to fail to see is that it is the idea of God/Godhead that is the source of power and creativity... whatever the reality (Wallace's 'fiction') is it is not what is said, or can be said... It's all metaphor, not what can be measured...