The Word Of God

From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design
Strike-slip fault and overthrust and syn and anticline. .
We gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known
And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone
Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks & shells are found;
Where truth has left its sketches on the slate below the ground
The patient stone can speak, if we but listen when it talks
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks

There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night
Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light
Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will
Galileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still
High above the mountaintops, where only distance bars
The truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars
We may watch and study or may shudder and deny
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky

By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur
How the living things that are descend from things that were
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies
These tiny, humble, wordless things---how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring
The truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing
Remember, should you have to choose between them in the strife
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life

And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world