This great big blue world—
Whirling like a merry-go-round—
Is broken-in but not broken-out.
Even before there was an earth,
Stars, nebulae, planets, black holes, or moons,
There was The Man Upstairs:
God was God
Because God never began to be.
He always was.
Earth was blacker than midnight
Until God sent the sun.
Dark clouds arrayed around earth
Broke apart and light tumbled in
To create day and night.
God drew the oceans together,
The land rose up,
And He said it was good.
He added grass, trees, flowers, and fruit
On the third day
And things were even better.
On the fourth day God rolled away the dew
And the stars and sun came into view.
He added fish to the sea and birds to the air
And took a handful of dust and created Adam
In a beautiful garden
Where the four rivers met,
And built a woman from Adam's rib.
Adam and Eve broke the one rule
God laid down
And the garden was cancelled.
Breaking God's rule led to thistles and work,
Disease and poverty, masters and slaves,
Lust ambition and madness,
Life and death, cooties and germs,
And the one never-ending war—
Like His one ocean—
That starts with Cain and Abel
And merges with every other skirmish,
Battle, imbrogilio, tilt, and holocaust
And forms a ring
That runs circles
Around our world.
---o0o---
[Next: The First Children & The First Murder]
and E. R. Eddison preceded Tolkien, but the enduring influence of his works have led to him being popularly identified as the "father of modern fantasy literature." In any case, Tolkien has had an indisputable and lasting effect on later works, as well as the genre as a whole. On the whole, he is a better writer than most of the puffed up academics and lit school grads. that scoff at him.
