Darren L. Slider



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DARREN L. SLIDER (B. 1967)

Religion

© 1985


O Mensch! Gib Acht!
Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht?
Ich schlief! Aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht!
Die Welt ist tief!
Und tiefer, als der Tag gedacht!
– F. Nietzsche1

Religion –
is it all
a mockery –
a pretense
to conceal wrongdoing,
the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons
hearing a sermon on brotherly love
and going out
to blow one another’s heads off?

Or can it be
genuine also?
The power of love
instead of
the love of power –
the widow Douglas
manifesting real concern for Huck
aside from considerations
of fire and brimstone?
Dare we throw out
the baby
with the bath water?



1O man! Take heed!
What speaks the deep midnight?
I slept! From deep dream I have awaked!
The world is deep!
And deeper than the day had thought!

Author’s Note: In this poem, written in February of 1985, I reflect on the ambivalent portrayal of religion in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The use of a quote from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra as the epigram of a religious poem is intentionally ironic.