ADAM

Before the shipwreck,

The cloistered poet dreamed

We are rooted in earth – Dust!

Iron rust grounded with blood

And Spirit breath with spittle,

Mixed and molded like clay

Dug out from beach dunes,

Shaped a son of God,

Sculpted a human being,

Created a man out of dust.

As God stooped to breathe

Inspiring life into his nostrils,

Adam breathed in aspiration,

Exhaling hopeful anticipation,

Eyes opened wide to existence,

And a consciousness self aware.

Created by God on the sixth day,

What wonder was this to the world?

A living soul of symmetry and pattern,

A being made in the likeness of his God,

A man made from a wind-blown dirt clod,

Balancing intelligence with an imagination

Soaring to sing with angels in the heavens;

Embracing truth with inborn understanding,

Receiving divine revelation through reason,

Exercising motion with energetic discipline,

With muscular proportion and compassion

Stewarding earth with a strong, steady love;

And with God-given free will to choose good,

Adam was conceived to be God’s companion.

Each beat of his heart pealing bells of eternity,

Enjoying joy and wonder, rejoicing in his Creator,

Lifting his hands to worship his Lord, pure in piety,

Bowing his head in reverent submission to his God,

His dreams filled with angels ascending a stairway,

Adam stirred with the morning whispers of God’s love.

Sheathed in skin, furred with hair, in complexion ruddy,

Clothed only with natural honor, lordly in naked majesty,

Crowned with human dignity, a crown worn with humility,

With his conscience bearing witness to law and holiness,

Keeping equilibrium on two feet with equanimity of mien,

Adam arose from slumber and stood to survey his realm.

Staffed with a virile scepter, projecting power and drive,

High browed and lean, clean lips speaking truth in love,

Ears tuned and purposed to hear and obey God’s Word,

Adam stepped forward to find his ambition in God’s will.

An aquiline nose, leonine mane, and jutting equine jaw

Firm in justice, solid in faithfulness, full in righteousness,

Framed his soulful visage, features fixed on fervent eyes.

In stature erect, tall and straight, in vision clear and true,

In reach exceeding his grasp, in dexterity nimble fingered,

Heaven derived, divinely favored, delighted in by wisdom,

Destined to reflect the grace and glory of God to creation,

Invested with God’s Spirit in the temple of a sanctified body,

Endowed with capacity to embody glory, majesty, and might,

Imbued with capability to acquire knowledge and know truth,

Enabled with competency of time, to remember and envision,

And designed for dominion, dialogue, and dutiful husbandry,

Adam appeared the image of God and the crown of creation,

Created by God to dwell in a covenant of love with his God.

Behold the man, heavens and earth! Behold the mystery

Revealed to the angels and authorities for all eternity!

Chosen before the firm foundation of the world

To be the first federal head of all mankind,

The mediator of God’s purpose,

For a witness to the ages

Of God’s grand plan:

Adam, the man.

At that time the earth was still young; before the rains came

The still warm soil exhaled mists, vapors swirled into clouds,

Aquifers welled up in springs that streamed towards seas.

In the beginning no shrubs or plants grew in the ground,

The earth was a desert of sand and stone, arid and dry.

Baptized by morning dew, chrismated by rolling fog banks,

Poppies and asters carpeted deserts with rainbow splashes,

And mountain wildflowers infused earth with aromatic balms.

Now in the east, in Eden, the Lord God had planted a garden

With an abundance of flowering trees, plants, and animals.

“Walk with me to the garden,” said the Lord God to Adam,

“And tell me stories.”

“Tell me the names, attributes, and taxonomy of my creatures.

Rub the leopard’s fur and count his spots, regard the mandrill,

Admire the lifetime pairing of a loving mandarin drake and hen,

Consider the crocodile, twirl with the bees in their hive dance,

Describe the woodpecker’s tongue and the armadillo’s armor,

Race the cheetah across savannas, howl with wolves at night,

Box the kangaroo, wrestle with the bear, wallow with the rhino,

Dive with the pelican and cormorant, swim with playful seals,

Number the monarchs as they flitter and flutter in the forest,

Portray for me the platypus and paint for me the plumage

Of the magnificent and superb birds of paradise.”

So I caressed the kitten and played with the pup,

Mounted the stallion, milked the cow, pastured the sheep,

And dreamed of a meet companion to help labor the land.

I was alone, the only one of my kind, mankind’s first father.

I thought I could be satisfied with God alone,

But God knew it was not good for me to be on my own,

And no suitable helper could be found among the beasts.

We had descended Mount Ararat carrying fire from a cave

Beneath a clear cerulean sky domed above a verdant earth.

We walked down slopes of young firs and pines,

Larches and yews, spruces and junipers,

Conifers cohabiting with broad-leafed alders;

Aspens, beeches, birches, maples, hickories, and oaks,

All populated by iridescent birds darting through the canopies.

A stag on a crag gazed solemnly at our passage, then bounded off,

A pride of lions grazing grass lifted their heads to watch us pass,

A troop of proboscis monkeys chattered and followed for a while,

While a langur, a lemur, a loris, and a tarsier silently waved us by.

We followed fern lined streams cascading over jumbled boulders,

Rampaging down gorges overhung with cypress and sycamores,

Winding along valleys of diamond-barked ashes, soughing elms,

Ramparts of giant redwoods and copses of scented eucalyptus,

Dense groves of mahogany, thick stands of teak, forests of figs,

And willows brushing over the waters, leaves rustling in delight.

We crossed a shallow ford into Eden, a paradise of pleasure,

Into the cool grove watered by the four rivers of creation

Flowing from one source to the cardinal ends of earth.

Nearby we heard steady thunder shaking the ground;

Before me a great plume of roaring waters rose higher

Than the tallest trees, rushing waters rising in a column,

A mighty fountain erupting, a geyser pulsing to the sky,

The waters falling back to earth in sprays of windy rain

Watering the garden and flowing into four great rivers:

The Pishon, winding round the whole land of Havilah

(The gold of that land is good, with resin and onyx);

The Gihon, surrounding the whole land of Cush;

The Hiddekel, flowing to the east of Assyria;

And the Perath, the fruitful river of time.

Flowering trees adorned with orchids

Graced the garden with scented color:

Sunset bougainvillea, fragrant frangipani,

Shooting stars, angel trumpets, yellow bells,

Golden chain, golden shower, golden trumpets,

Flowering crabapple, mountain apple, yellow witch hazel,

Blue hydrangea, purple robe locust, velvet cloak smoke tree,

Tri-colored yesterday-today-and tomorrow, vibrant guaiacum,

Lavender lapacho, violet jacaranda, mauve magnolia, lilac wisteria,

Saffron forsythias, white azaleas, and maroon rhododendron forests;

Blossoming trees exploded with color, bursts of radiant, vibrant hues:

Purple glory, crape myrtle, blush cherry, snow pear, rose redbuds,

Pale pink petals of almond, walnut, hazelnut, apricot, and peach,

Yellow-white olives and jasmine, and fuschia petaled pistachio,

Pink quince, magenta plum, rose dogwood, apple blossoms

Bloomed and fruited like a kaleidoscope of colored glass

Lit up by sunlight, shaken in a succession of seasons,

An endless spring and harvest to nourish the soul.

The first morning dawned, stars gave way to dew,

A field of diamonds glistened to the aube’s delight,

And our footsteps followed in the green, wet grass

As we made our way into this sanctuary of beauty.

The garden’s glory was a gift of rest, refreshment,

And renewal in quiet contemplation of creation,

Recognizing the Creator’s covenant of love

In petals of promise and in pledges of fruit,

In a bird song and clouds dappling stone,

In scented snapdragon and honeysuckle,

In rainbow hues across festive blossoms,

In the flicker of a hovering hummingbird,

In a cardinal’s spark alighting on a limb,

In a rabbit and squirrel curiously close,

In the summer buzz of a bumble bee,

And butterflies fluttering on blooms,

While water gurgled down a brook,

And a breeze whispered peace.

I could have stayed forever,

But on we walked,

The Lord and I,

Wonders revealed

Along the winding way.

Avenues of stately planes, date palms,

And poplars like pillars lined the path

To the middle of the flowering garden;

Past pomegranate and orange orchards

Bordered by cockspur corals

And flamboyants in crimson flame;

Past dense stands of durian, star apple, avocado, and amla;

Past a banyan tree laced with tendrils and intertwined trunks;

Under the shade of a giant mango tree, heavy laden with fruit,

We lingered to taste each delight and delight our conversation

With joy welling up to bathe our words in a warm womb of love.

What sublime raptures and reveries thrilled my deep reflections

As God spoke with me, pointing to plants, summoning creatures

Two by two for me to give them names and extoll their attributes;

Stroking the sinews of a purring tiger burning a fearful symmetry,

Teaching parrots to mimic talk and preen their bejeweled plumage,

Calling to the unicorn stallion to dance prancing with waving mane,

I marveled at how the names I gave them evoked their perfections.

God is the perfect poet creating works and worlds of endless love,

Revealing a world full of His grandeur, full of His freshness shared,

Inviting me to listen, look, see, smell, taste, touch, and feel wonder;

Guiding me to tend to His garden of glory, to care for all creatures,

To guard and keep watch, heed and observe, protect and preserve,

To envision and imagine innovations in recreation of God’s creation,

To discover God’s secrets, explore His mysteries, uncover His truth;

To reason and ponder, solve problems, craft solutions; and to work

Weeding flower beds, pruning branches back to yield sweeter fruit;

To work in wisdom and worship in work, working together in grace,

While I grew to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.

When the sun had run his patient course six times across the sky,

And rose again to ascend his arc in his tireless sweep east to west,

The Lord and I had ascended a rise to the top of a plateau where

We stopped to rest at a wondrous cathedral with an altar of stone;

There I offered the fruits of my labor in grateful tribute to my God:

Bouquets of scented blooms, ripe fruits, sprigs of sage and thyme

Arranged in patterns of ascending beauty across the marbled rock.

There in the forest glade, winged cherubim descended to prepare

A tabernacle and temple dwelling for God, a meeting tent for man,

A mirror where God’s presence could commune with God’s image.

With towering pillars of living cedars streaming rays of golden light,

With angelic choirs praising God, my voice joining in loud rejoicing,

Worshipping His holy presence filling the temple with a glory cloud,

I and Thou came together in mystic rapture, in holy sabbath peace,

Anointing time with a testimony to His glory, a tribute to His grace,

The embrace of an eternal fellowship with our Father, face to face.

I would have stayed an eternity in worship, my love-wrapped soul

Laughing with rapture overflowing, but God bade me rise and go.

On we walked, past grape vines, bushes, and berries of every kind;

Past slow blooming spiky silverswords and slow growing tall puyas;

Past a coconut grove where we drank milk and ate the creamy nut;

Past more trees thick with fruit exuding exotic and aromatic scents:

Banana, tamarind, quince, cherimoya, lychee, lucuma, lemon, lime,

And full, fat gourds of prickly guanábana and smooth, pink guava, 

Papaya and pawpaw, carambola and kiwi, rambutan and longan,

Passion fruit, jackfruit, breadfruit, persimmon, rose apple, and fig;

Past bottle tree ceibas, yucca palms, ocotillos, and dragon trees;

Past an endless variety of cultivars with an assortment of shapes,

Until finally, there in the middle of the garden,

Beneath a waterfall white like a swan’s neck,

Beside a quietly pulsing pool

Stood two trees:

One gnarled and old,

The other smooth and straight:

The tree of life

And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There I bathed my body in the clear, pure waters;

Coming to the end of my voyage, to a place of rest,

I emerged from the pool washed from dust and dirt.

Overwhelmed with the provision of an abundant life,

Moved by the blessing and promise of a cultural mandate

To be fruitful and to multiply, to rule and steward the earth,

I raised my hands in reverence and prayed my fealty to God.

“O Lord, my Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have raised your glory and splendor above the heavens!

When I consider the stars above, all the work of your fingers,

Who am I that you are mindful of me, that you care for me?

You master me Lord, breath giver, spirit breather, life fount,

You quickened my flesh, bound bones and veins in me.

You, You have made me a little lower than the angels,

And crowned me with glory and honor.

But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, 

I say, ‘You are my God and I am your man.’

In the covenant of love

You have anointed me to rule over the works of Your hands,

You have placed all things under my feet: beasts, birds, and fish,

You have given me power with Your presence, peace in Your rest,

You have taught me to tend to Your garden and honor Your truth,

You have planted me like a fruitful tree beside streams of water;

O Lord, my Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Then the Lord said,

“From any tree 

Of the garden 

You may eat freely;

But from the tree 

Of the knowledge 

Of good and evil

You shall not eat,

For in the day 

That you eat from it 

You will surely die.”

At the warning words

I snapped to attention

And resolved to obey;

How could I disobey and risk the loss of my Lord and Creator,

How could I offer Him nothing less than my best to please Him,

To prove my worth and value, to vow my dedication and service

As God’s vassal and viceroy on earth?

Given the birthright of the first son, the dominion of the first king,

With power to command and power to serve in humility and truth,

With vested authority to rule in God’s name, with wisdom to judge,

With vision and foresight, inspired reason and revealed knowledge,

With gifts, skills, and abilities as a master architect to shape space,

With prevailing patience, perseverance, and plenitude to plan time,

With the anointing and privilege to administer the covenant of love,

With riches overflowing and prosperity abounding in His blessings,

And with a sacred duty to worship the Maker of heaven and earth,

How could I not teach God’s first commandment as His prophet?

How could I fail to fulfill the calling to be man’s first royal priest?

How could I betray His covenant of love by disobeying His rules?

How could I not obey my heavenly Father, Lord, and Maker God?

Why would I not seek the blessing over the curse, and obey Him?

Given freedom to choose to eat from fruit of any tree in the garden,

How could I not resist the temptation to eat from the one forbidden?

My resolve was resolute; my works would justify me before my God.

My one lingering doubt was, “how could I be fruitful and multiply?”

Unless the Lord my God provided me with a suitable female mate.

After the long journey I lay down on a moss bed and slept deeply,

Dreaming that a silver knife had carved open a sliver in my side

And removed a rib.

Curved like a waxing crescent moon, cradled against my body’s curve,

Carved as if from the same block of bone, dressed and fitted neatly,

Nestled in my loins, spooned in my sleep, complementing my limbs,

I awoke to find my rib had become another body mirroring mine.

You rose like a cloud of cloves, intoxicating my mind with mist;

Cascading glory of hair spilling down into tresses and waves,

Shaking curves, coils, and curls shimmering gold in twilight,

Glowing softly like rich burnished ebony with auburn luster;

Who are you? What dream brought you to my solitary self?

Beauty come alive, beauty incarnate, your beautiful soul

Radiant with life, smiling with the light of an innocence

Suffused with the light of the dawn, tender and warm,

Your almond eyes like deep pools drawing me close,

Sparkling as our souls arced a spark between us,

Igniting a blazing passion for the cause of love;

Quick as the wind, then, your lashes fluttering

Demurely down, desire tempered with delight,

Your demeanor softening from willful wildness

To a spirit serene, to peace gilding your face,

Touching my soul with care and compassion,

Gentle hands gesturing with generous love,

Lips like ripe figs whispering with wisdom,

Cheeks like peaches, skin like down,

A nose like a rose bud blossoming

Into the petals of your truth-blushed face;

You smiled and my heart burst with fullness

As I admired your beauty standing before me,

Your neck rising smoothly like a young poplar,

Sweet breasts like twin doves fluttering softly,

Your rounded mound of a gently swelling belly

Crowning a well of promise, the gift of new life,

A burning bush hiding the gateway to heaven;

Supple, warm-marbled body, smoothly shaped,

Long limbed and delicate like a doe, full of grace

Laced with the fragrances of lavender and rose,

Full with love, brimming over with joyful laughter,

A virtuous virgin chaste and pure, a valiant heart

Devoted to duty and dedicated to righteousness,

Selfless in charity, ever given to giving of yourself,

Toughened by tenacity, tempered with diligence, 

Steeled by ardent devotion and fierce resilience,

And grounded by common sense trusting truth,

In purpose resolute, ever persevering in prayer,

You are poised with charm, resolved to please;

Naked without shame, woman chosen for man,

Woman created a helpmate, the glory of man,

Made in God’s image, reflecting His likeness,

My wise, sensitive bride with a robust heart,

Dazzling in bloom and dauntless in love,

You draw near without a shadow of fear,

Followed by a train of creatures you tamed.

How beautiful you are, my darling, my love,

How beautiful!

There is no spot in you, no fault nor frailty.

Show me your smile, let me hear your voice,

For your voice is light and your smile lovely,

Like water bubbling lightly over pure stones

In my heart’s spring. Look!

I found the one my heart loves,

I found the love that won my heart.

You have stolen my heart, my love,

Your beauty has ravished my heart,

You are altogether beautiful, my love,

Without flaw.

Come, beloved, let us go to the spring,

Let us draw from the well of God’s love,

Let us arise at dawn to watch the buds

Bloom and the blossoms unfurl beauty

Like a banner to proclaim our love;

There, my love, I will give you my love,

I will kiss you with the kisses of my mouth,

Together we shall be a garden fountain,

A welling up of flowing waters

Streaming down from Eden to water the world.

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, woman cloned from man,

Praise be the Lord who joined us one flesh, one heart, one soul!

Who wove us into His love in an unbroken cord of three strands!

Who wedded us with a covenant vow of love and communion!

Who set the marriage of man and woman for a family forever!

Who blessed us to be fruitful and multiply, to rule and subdue!

Who crowned us king and queen to reign with love and mercy!

Who promised to give us dominion of folk, flocks, and flowers!

These be my vows to you, my love, my wife, my friend, my joy,

My soul mate forever,

“I will betroth you to me forever;

I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,

I will betroth you in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness,

And we will acknowledge the Lord.

In that day we will respond,

We will respond to the skies,

And the heavens will respond to the earth;

And the earth will respond to the grain,

And to the new wine and to the olive oil,

And together we will respond

To the Lord our God and Maker.”

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind!

Blow on this garden that its fragrance may spread far and wide,

Let us weave our voices in braided songs, duets of love and joy,

Let my beloved come into our garden and taste its choice fruits,

Let our labors together tend to the flowers and feed the flocks,

Let us together draw wisdom from the deep wells of His Word,

Let us join the Lord our God in building His kingdom creation.

How wise you are, my wife, my new found wife, how wise

Who put a finger to my lips and whispered in my ear,

“Do not arouse or awaken love until she so desires.”

How precious your words of pledged troth to me,

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”

We were lying on a grassy verge

Wrapped in mutual gaze,

Beneath a vault of stars

Bejeweling the night with light,

When a peacock in full feather

Fanned out his triumphal tail

And cried out a shrill scream

This fair warning,

“Enjoy and obey!”

REFERENCES:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Paradise_Lost_20.jp

Genesis 2

Psalm 8

Song of Songs

Hosea 2:19-22 NIV

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”

Robert Browning, “Andrea del Sarto”

Robert Browning, “Paracelsus”

William Blake, “Tyger, Tyger”

Lord Byron, “She Walks in Beauty”

Pablo Neruda, “And Because Love Battles”

Joseph E. Duncan.  Milton’s Earthly Paradise: A Historical Study of Eden. 

Meredith G. Kline.  Kingdom Prologues: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview.

Mandrills are the world’s largest monkeys. Charles Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man that “no other member in the whole class of mammals is coloured in so extraordinary a manner as the adult male mandrill’s”.[5] –  Darwin, Charles (1871). The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex. D. Appleton and Co, New York. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrill#cite_note-5

There is, however, one Thou which never becomes an It, the “ eternal Thou, ” God. Though we may speak of God in the third person, the reality of His approach is constituted in the fulness of the relation of an I with a Thou.  In truth, God may only be “addressed, not expressed.”  Martin Buber, “I and Thou.”                                       http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Buber-c1923-I_And_Thou-ocr-tu.pdf