one will ever know;
And why there was nothing but Nothing is something
We must never try to learn.
Nothingness had been floating
For no one knows how long,
Upon the invisible waters of Time—
That mighty River with
Neither source nor mouth,
Which was—
Which is
And ever shall be.
Then one day—
Or is it right to say ‘one day’?—
The River Time desired Nothingness
Like a flesh-and-blood male beast
Desires his female partner.
And as a result of this strangest mating
Of Time and Nothingness,
A most tiny nigh invisible spark
Of living Fire was born.
This tiny, so tiny spark of Fire could think
And grew conscious of its lonely state;
No one nor nothing could hear its cries
In the lonely depths of Utter Nothingness—
Like forlorn a babe,
Lost and in despair,
In a cold dark forest.
‘I exist – I am what I am!’
Was the living thought that pulsed through the ‘mind’
Of the tiny spark as it wildly flew through the dark
Trying to flee from where there was no escape—
Trying to evade the lifeless,
Empty, dark and Utter Nothingness.
It was like a tiny firefly lost
In a dark cave ’neath a berg
From where it could never escape.
‘I must either grow or end my life,’
Thought the spark at long, long last;
‘If Nothingness wishes to engulf me
In my present size and state,
Then I must increase my size
Till I equal that of Nothingness!’
There was nothing for the spark to feed upon and grow,
So it fed upon itself
And grew in size until at last its mother Nothingness
Became aware of its unwelcome presence
And decided to destroy it.
Nothingness at first had tried
To smother it in Darkness which is
The enemy of Light,
But the spark resisted brighter – and became yet brighter.
Then Nothingness cast a spell of cold upon the spark;
Cold – a deadly foe of heat,
But this induced the spark to grow
Only hotter and yet more hot.
* * *
The Living Spark did grow, and grew until
At last it equalled Nothingness in size,
And to sustain itself – proceed with growth,
It devour’d its mother, Nothingness—
And digested her
With the most awful flash of light
That anyone or anything had ever chanced to see.
‘I am what I am,’ it boasted.
But River Time was very cross with what the spark had done
And quickly sent the Spirit Cold to fight the spark outright.
A mighty battle soon ensued, in which the spark,
Now a universal roaring Flame
Which filled the sky with many soaring tongues,
Tried to melt Cold’s Spirit, and devour it complete,
While Cold its icy Spirit blew,
Its cold wet breath into the Flame;
But it only turned a portion of the Flame
Into cold white ash.
And this ferocious battle, which started so long ago,
Today still rages unabating, and shall yet proceed
Till Time shall cease to flow.
And the Wise Men of the tribes relate
That if the Flame one day shall win,
All that exist shall perish
In one consuming Fire,
While if victory goes to the Spirit of Cold
All living things shall freeze to death!
May the Great Spirit who is Lord Almighty
And Paramount Chief of all
Grant that neither Flame nor Cold
Shall ever win the War,
Because whosoever beats the other—
The sun, the moon, the earth and stars
And all that live shall cease to be!
May both antagonists fight forth for everlasting Time,
Because on their unceasing conflict
All Life depends.
From
