Deity

By Christos Floratos

 

I happened upon God once where the trains all meet.

Some untethered opera,

Some backwater near Cronulla.

Home was only around when he showed his radiant face.

 

I found Buddha once in the closest of my mind.

A certain harmony followed my shut eyes

Where charity chanced my unsullied temper.

A gleam into a thought that was most aqua, and of eucalypti.

 

I thought I saw Vishnu by the pond on my street, once.

Their gaze, of all of them, critiqued my bones.

My teeth were hot, and I was sick of faded rainbows.

But they all accepted… eventually. Smiled… forever.

 

I once pondered Allah,

In a field scorn of ignorance; that White powdered most.

Five pillars untouched yet unfound.

I had only a broken encore to share, nothing they hadn’t heard.

 

Once, I was one with the dream time.

A flurry red and black dots that

linked me from Dharug, Eora and Ku-ring-gai.

Some stories weren’t mine to keep, but mine to know.

 

I concluded, upon a time.

Sitting on dragonfly-ridden fields,

That a singularity was never enough to consider.

How these worlds birthed a supernova,

 

A conflux now limitless, enshrined in shine.

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Author’s Comments:

‘Deity’ ponders not ‘who made the universe’ but rather, ‘who made me’. This is poem is in the Autumn that is the construction of my beliefs, values and my spiritual identity.

Each spirituality I mention has had profound effect on my own spiritual upbringing. Growing up in the multicultural society of Western Sydney, although I grew up under Christian denominations, my belief system has encountered difference in all facets of life. My own spirituality has adapted. I use the repetition of the word ‘once’ in each stanza to signify a past relationship with the specific spiritualities ideas that wasn’t fleeting.

I happened upon God once where all the trains meet.

Stanza 1

In this poem, you may notice a lack of mention to Judaism, while the other three ‘major religious denominations’ are mentioned. Arguably, you could say I am mentioning Judaism when I mention God but Judaism’s effects on me have probably been more unconscious. Most of the time, when I refer to the specific deity however, I am not explicitly mentioning them, but rather what they have represented in my life.

Their gaze, of all of them, critiqued my bones.

Stanza 3

I have given specific mention to indigenous dreaming as my values have steered in that direction of valuing indigenous narratives. This is important in considering the order of the religious mentioning, which is linked to a very-rough time frame of when I had started to value those ideas. I end the poem with a subversion of “once upon a time” to symbolise continuous spiritual growth in my life. However, I do not identify as me contributing to the religions, but rather how they have contributed to my own current agnostic frame of mind.

Some stories weren’t mine to keep, but mine to know.

Stanza 5