Theology

“God is only a name for our wonder.”

                               -- Alfred Kazin, Journals

It is not so much a matter

of whether he is or is not,

but what we think he is about:

why not a phoebe before dawn,

butterflies on a summer afternoon,

or a painting by Frida;

Beethoven’s quartet in A minor,

some unexpected kindness,

or quatrains from dear Emily?

In short, he lives in all the gifts

(like asters at the end of summer)

that we cannot explain,

which are of this world,

and, equally, of places still unseen.