Canticle for the Dignity of Man
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What is man that thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man that thou visitest him?
What is the one thing God is unable to do? was the question
That Skull-Duggery asked on my waking, or even returning
Back to the world of the living again, and by only the light of
One good eye was a semblance of knowledge regained, by discerning
Dimmest surroundings: a darkness of night, or at least a forsaken
Land by the sun, and a figure of hidden proportion and shape, the
Absolute form and whatever it bore in resemblance obscured; it
Only was clear by its twin eyes, blinding and widened agape, the
Enemy stood overhead, for its lights were an attribute like the
Moon, a mysterious white, cold, searching the soul, and unfurling
Glimmering spirit in terrible night, who again has repeated the
Question, the sole interrogative loosening lights silvery-sterling,
Now for the man born dead, to ignore is impossible; to answer,
Needful; whatever intentions the demon was wont, unavoidable; speaking
Thrice, Skull-Duggery asked its unknowable thing, and I minded
Not as awareness of blood from my arm was apparent, the leaking
Remnants of bone seen not but was felt, and before it had asked for a fourth time,
Rasping a whisper, I found a response: None know, and the answers
Come, It is known, for in fact He has given the truth: He cannot be
Changed, He cannot be destroyed, He cannot be uprooted, the cantors
Tell; for in days of Egyptian captivity God had revealed His
Name and His nature: ‘I AM’, so to be is to be, and His species
Therefore entails the unending, and thus is impossible such that
Change can be wrought; for the purposes later explained in the theses
Following, know I have ventured no claims God hid or concealed, this
Premise is grounded by God in His Name, as a name can contain some
Truth of the subject, as God knows me by the title of Candle-
Jar, but the name Skull-Duggery distances man and refrains from
Showing a mortal too much of myself, yet for thee, it is not a
Meaningful phrase; and for thee, I am somewhat aware of thy own name,
Something thou fear with intensity, greatest distress . . .and I knew that
Truth, for indeed I retreated before the discovery, known shame,
Faced with the fact I was still in my sins, resurrection was merely
Mortal revival and far from the promise of glory by fabled
Word of the prophets; indeed, I remember my sins, and my name my
Mother had given to me was a vapor, hevel, it was Abel,
Meant for the righteous and granted to loathsome a sinner in me, and
Far from the slain man drawn from the Book of the Law, a virulent
Life I had lived in the days of my youth, and as man, I had failed as
Well to respect and to fear God, always and always in movement
Following these, this path of the dead, Skull-Duggery knew: See,
Abel, the taunting thy name has renewed, and in sacrifice fleeting
Blasphemies brought by the hands of the Sadducees meant for the altar,
What is the reason for action, if God is unchanging, un-needing,
That this sacrifice ventures to gain — if perhaps it is man’s sole
Benefit, God has the wealth of existence to craft for His creatures
That of a realm not flawed, but in ev’ry decision He makes, He
Therefore neglects some other decision, and that is a feature
Telling, for this is descriptive of both the Creator and creature,
That the Creator is known by His craft, and the creature betrays in
Kind its Creator, the image of likeness of God as conveyed on
Scrolls of the Torah, and thus to exist in the movement and station
Fastened to time is to do things God is unable, and therefore
Man is the image of God as He changes in time . . . but arranging
This, God grants to His image the power of will, and a will set
Free in the space of allotted endeavor through time, and in changing
Man can discover the truth and deception, the good and the evil,
All to his hindrance or wonder, and such is the thing to distinguish
Man from the beasts, as the beast has received all it ever entails by
Birth, but the state of a man is decided the moment extinguished,
Making the man a receiver of gifts all his life, so the angels
Envy and fall to the earth, as the spirits of heaven receiving
Graces are given at once all the graces required, and nothing
More; it is this, man’s greatest of gifts, that devils conceiving
Evils rely to deceive and to drag to damnation the man, for
Wills can be broken, and change is the journey to darkness and back to
Light, and so while the light can in time comprehend the without, the
Dark is unable to truly reciprocate; this is the fact thou
Heedlessly heard but avoided by walking the desert with me, and
Not understood as it were the beginnings of things, the obsessions
Rapturing minds of an ord’nary man: for I knew he had planted
Curious ways in thy heart for a knowledge of angels’ discretions,
Secret and always-unknowable things, the mysterious grimoires
Finding particular dignity always in hearts of the careless
Mortal, and questioning not if a wise man ever has entered
Heaven by knowledge of angels and spans of the wings; to be fair, this
Might have a better intention, but even in this, to neglect that the
Contents of one’s soul bears no resemblance to those of the mind, a
Difference found in the actions on earth and thy thinkings astray and
Vulgar, because an awareness condemns, whence only to find the
Truth and be still unrepentant was wicked Balaam, and to change in
Ignorance means all the more; but the demon has other ascriptions:
Knowledge is peace, and I hear in thy purposeless thoughts a disturbing
Theory on knowledge, to which I implore: has a man had prescriptions
That had begotten an action without his consent by his knowledge?
Nay, it is far from the truth, as I know the disquiet within thee
Comes from the knowledge of what thou imagine I am: a demonic
Force, and it led to the silence produced, in avoiding the sins to
Follow an even polite interaction, and knowledge was crucial
Lest it were pointless a work; I repeat that knowledge is needed
When a decision on action is warranted, otherwise nothing
Could be performed, as observed in the word of the Law thou hast heeded
Being a Jew, with it knowledge of covenant good . . . and although it
Spoke with mendacity, this was a half-truth, that in the Torah,
Laws are proclaimed for an edified people, but missing was whether
This was the glory of knowledge or God, and to cultivate more a
Righteous society over the fortunes of future decision,
Rather a reason to be faithful to seeking to gather a treasure
Vault of the things of the earth, or to live in the peace of the slightest
Knowledge and not of a thing more; good works come of a measure
Poured by the Lord of His peace, and in knowledge alone is deceit of
Captious debate, as a mere man knows of the things he is wholly
Ignorant, not of the things he is confident, that on the earth, we
Know the untruthful, as evident through the observed, so we solely
Know in the negative, not in the ultimate, being the sudden
Consequence wrought by a dampened awareness of God, who is only
Truth; and again, Skull-Duggery comments, I hear of thy falsehood,
Explain to me this: here in Paran, I have crafted a lonely
Place for thy strict isolation, and leveraged hunger and thirst to
Harden thy soul, and I maimed thee well as to elevate thinking,
Mortify flesh and to show to the higher divine, but I am a
Demon, a fallen celestial being, so how in the linking
God to the truth can I come and beguile a man to discover
God, as the serpent convinced Eve once to partake of the pleasing
Fruit, as a pure imprecation — to open the heavens and venture
Darkness, to grant man wisdom and lead to expulsion by seizing
Powers of God He refused to His creatures — and still it is said that
God is the truth? and I thought to the demon the different wisdoms,
Evil and good, as observed in the syncretists, scholars of folly;
Arrogant mystics in obedience brokered to worldly mysterums;
Spillers of entrails and beastly diviners; the fond of perverse and
Lustful behaviors for pleasures uncharted; and learned men,
Those universalists die with the world; in the counting of things, we
Know of the things, but we fail to be masters of these, as we earned then
Nothing our own but we count of our lord’s great wealth, as the demon
Even discovered the name and the fate of a man broken and breathing,
Still he has failed to be master of this man born and yet not dead;
Prophecy shows the futility, what in the truth can a fleeting
Vapor we call time yoke; so indeed in the prophets we see the
Answer the serpent had sought, for in knowledge is dust, and it ever
Crawls on the dust as a sign of its mastery over the dust that
Blows in the wind of our time, it is nothing; behold, in the never
Perishing Law of the Torah is that of the other intriguing
Question for God in the earliest days, and the Law did inspire:
Cain had inquired if man was the keeper of brothers, and this the
Lasting response; so together we see the Tanakh in entire
Frame is the window to God and to know God means to obey and
Levy a test to all things by the Word of the Law as transmitted
Over the centuries, not to obsess in the Lord for His wisdom;
Rather, to seek wise things for the Lord, for as knowledge submitted,
Man is required as well to submit to the holiest Word, no
Theses nor secrets concealed are appropriate given the wistful
Tendency spirits possess to return to a folly and worship
Words and Tradition instead of the Lord, so in tranquil and blissful
Ignorance, this man born dead knows not what is to come, but
Struggles with God as companion and not as contender, the meaning
Meant for the name of the nation of Israel: “struggles with God”; the
Truth in the names, as was mentioned, reveals its intent, so by seeming
Providence, Abel discloses a future to witness, and Candle-
Jar: is it possible therefore to wane in thy wax and to perish,
Here at the end of the night? or to struggle in burning pathetic
Flames in the dread of the day — and to speak of the Torah I cherish,
This is the Law and the Ritual, this is the Teaching, Instruction,
Discipline, this is the answer to every question I wrestle,
This is the reason the holy Jerusalem fell, for the answer
Dwells in its contents, whereby the time and the method is nestled
Sound as it sleeps in its contents as when the mashiach will come to
Rule, and I fret not over the fall of an earthly possession;
This is the pains of a new-born labor, I know for my own name,
Breath is the gift I was given by pair, and if such were a question,
Abel is similar-sounding to “God is my Father,” for one born
Dead, it is witnessed; so this is the dignity granted to man-kind,
Not to be tortured for ignorance, not to be slavishly learning;
This is the greater of dignities, loved by the One who began time,
Loved by the Father of spirits, of lights, and of love; by salvation,
God has bequeathed an inheritance greater than angels on high: the
Awesome redemption of man for transgressions, the chance to be righteous
After betraying the Lord in our sins, as a rainless and dryly
Destitute sky can be filled by its only accord with the waters
Poured from the heavens, and open the windows of rain for the thirsting
Earth out of love; so the Lord is unchanging in Himself, but He changes
Man and Creation without intervention directly or bursting
Wills unrestrained, so a man might merit his righteous position:
This is the dignity man has enjoyed, and continues despite the
Errors he purchases, seeking in counting the words of the holy
Law some remedy farther beyond the command for a rightly
Ordered and served life; this Skull-Duggery loathed, as he lingered
Closer and more of his visage appeared; and eluding ascription,
This was the form of a demon in darkened unglory, the image
Horribly shaped by rejection of ultimate good, no description
Fairly conveys its unearthly restriction and terror, and lest I
Perish in sight of the demon, I turned in disgust, and the churning
Shadows its body was casting continued unfolding, and even
This was a sight existentially sickening, causing a burning
Feeling in mind and in body by witnessing this, and it drew in
Closer and closer, repeating, Is this not knowledge, beholding
Angels and knowing the face of their fallen? or rather, it seems to
Me in thy fearful and small state, God is aware and withholding
Righteous protections; for reasons unknown He allowed all the devil’s
Angels to make a rebellion, banishing angels to wander
Earth for the greatest unthinkable things, for our reasoning perfect,
Higher than man can begin comprehension, and seeking to ponder
These is the knowledge in which we have dwelled, so prepared to enrapture
Man in his curious nature: the first exploitation; admit this,
God has abandoned thy cause, as a man has no dignity, only
Dust and defilement, proof as He lets me force thy witness
Under my truest disgrace, so behold: I was Ananel, Candle-
Jar of a smoke-cloud billowing bursts in a trembling fire,
Wavering flames and beholden to none, and extinguished by angels
Not . . . Skull-Duggery’s light-eyes grew bright-hot, I perspired
Under the heat so intense, and my eyes had begun to be pried wide,
Soon it was obvious this was an angel of shining appearance,
Darkened enough to be cast from the Presence, but not so diminished
That he was not still able to outlast man’s perseverance —
Suddenly flooding my mortal-received flesh came a distressing
Comfort, convicting and calming at once; I responded, confessing:
Never was I left wanting, the Lord is my shepherd, for places
Over the hills, in the pastures of tenderest grasses and graces
Where He has carried me, laying me down in the midst of the shallow
Waters, distilled in a silent faith, where He leads me to hallow
Hymns as unspoken as waters, restoring the flow of my soul’s spring
Running concurrent to paths fulfilling and righteous, the whole thing
Only to hallow His name most precious and sacred, to ponder
That in the valley of death-shade that I have purposed to wander,
Thou hast accompanied me, so I fear not evil, Thy holy
Staff for Thy sheep, rod kept by Thy side, are a comfort my lowly
Spirit enjoys, for the table Thou fashioned before all the hostile
Hosts and myself have assembled a favor for finding my lost will,
Having anointed my head in an oil refined, so in knowing
That for my portion, I see in the chalice — my cup overflowing ! —
Goodness and kindness pursuant exclusively once I have drank it:
Always throughout my allotment of days on the earth, for the banquet
Hitherto mentioned resides in His court, in His garden, my dwelling
Place as the Lord well-pleases, the breadth of eternity swelling.
Then, Skull-Duggery vanished, and nothing remained to be seen this
Moment of night but the shadow of emptiest heavens and swimming
Stars in a distant and dark sky; sands had transformed to greenest
Grasses, Paran was replaced with another location of brimming
Beauty and silent tranquility; whether deprived of my missing
Arm and my eye, I could feel it persist, I reposed in a tender
Rest, untormented and eased by a wonderful stillness and kissing
Breeze, so subsided my hunger and thirst, and resigned to surrender,
Here I began understanding the righteousness made in the Power
Dwelling in smallest and largest of things, in the songs of a lonely
Sparrow and mine, in my prayers approaching the strike of my hour,
That in the last of my days, if it dithers afar, it is only
Moments away, and when comes the fatigue of the saints for the Righteous
One, He will comfort despairing, for them He has given His presence;
Under a blanket of calmest arrest in a sky of no light, this
Snare of Gehenna undone, so I sleep, and my plan for my penance.
questioned by a demon • captive in its blinding gaze
a conversation about knowledge • the demon reveals itself
The Lord is my Shepherd • out of the bondage of death