Spiritus Mundi

by Ward Kelley

We are the viruses of it all,
we carry it around
in these odd bodies,
not quite divine,
not quite dead,
viruses of theology,
our minds little metaphors
of the great teeming
that twirls around the edges
of earth's conscious being.

Only intuition and ghosts
ever glimpse it...
yet sometimes poems may guess,
and this is why we carve
out these reverse prayers,
relentless,
toiling with bones...
although none of this
is reliable.

None of this can ever
be displayed as a truth,
as much as we yearn,
as much as we yearn,
yet that is the beauty
of us poor viruses,
not quite divine,
not quite dead,
not quite,
not quite.

Artist's note: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a geologist, paleontologist, philosopher-theologian and priest. Leaving his teaching career at the Catholic Institute in Paris where his superiors charged him with unorthodox views, he spent twenty years in China, participating in the discovery of Peking man. Teilhard is better known for his work on evolutionary theory, stating that matter always obeyed the great law of biology, which is the law of complexification. From geological complexities emerged biological forms which went on to cover the earth in a biosphere; and from all this biological activity emerged the noosphere, a layer of mental energy above the biosphere, surrounding the globe.

Ward Kelley has seen more than 700 of his poems appear in journals world wide since he began publishing in 1996. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Kelley's publication credits include such journals as: ACM Another Chicago Magazine, Rattle, Sunstone, Spillway, Porcupine Literary Magazine, Pif, 2River View, Oblique, Offcourse, Potpourri and Skylark. He has been honored as featured poet for Seeker Magazine, Physik Garden, Poetry Life & Times, and Pyrowords.
E-mail: Ward708@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
I.D. Theory articles: "Spiritus Mundi" | "Immortal Consumption"
Links: http://www.wardkelley.com