God! ask me not to record your wonders, I admit the stars and the suns And the countless worlds. But I have measured their distances And weighed them and discovered their substances. I have devised wings for the air, And keels for water, And horses of iron for the earth. I have lengthened the vision you gave me a million times, And the hearing you gave me a million times, I have leaped over space with speech, And taken fire for light out of the air. I have built great cities and bored through the hills, And bridged majestic waters. I have written the Iliad and Hamlet; And I have explored your mysteries, And searched for you without ceasing, And found you again after losing you In hours of weariness— And I ask you: How would you like to create a sun And the next day have the worms Slipping in and out between your fingers? Willie Metcalf I was Willie Metcalf. They used to call me “Doctor Meyers,” Because, they said, I looked like him. And he was my father, according to Jack McGuire. I lived in the livery stable, Sleeping on the floor Side by side with Roger Baughman’s bulldog, Or sometimes in a stall. I could crawl between the legs of the wildest horses Without getting kicked—we knew each other. On spring days I tramped through the country To get the feeling, which I sometimes lost, That I was not a separate thing from the earth. I used to lose myself, as if in sleep, By lying with eyes half-open in the woods. Sometimes I talked with animals—even toads and snakes— Anything that had an eye to look into. Once I saw a stone in the sunshine Trying to turn into jelly. In April days in this cemetery The dead people gathered all about me, And grew still, like a congregation in silent prayer. I never knew whether I was a part of the earth With flowers growing in me, or whether I walked— Now I know. Willie Pennington They called me the weakling, the simpleton, For my brothers were strong and beautiful, While I, the last child of parents who had aged, Inherited only their residue of power. But they, my brothers, were eaten up In the fury of the flesh, which I had not, Made pulp in the activity of the senses, which I had not, Hardened by the growth of the lusts, which I had not, Though making names and riches for themselves. Then I, the weak one, the simpleton, Resting in a little corner of life, Saw a vision, and through me many saw the vision, Not knowing it was through me. Thus a tree sprang From me, a mustard seed. The Village Atheist