This poem is taken from Poetry Nation 1 Number 1, 1973.

Three Poems

Robert Nye
Three Poems


PROLOGUE

I am said to be made in the image of a mystery
Which may never be effaced however marred
The likeness of God lies in the correspondence of the will
Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

It is not known whether that fruit was sweet or bitter
Nor if without it the mind would have had a better taste
You may suppose your own death to be a mistake
At least until you have been mistaken by it

Meanwhile we will have sin to be going on with
Which consists of so many little sips of the grave
Original and actual: the sin of birth
And the seven sins of contradiction to eternal grace

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost
We can't change human nature but God may
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