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When There Was Nothing

Today is Trinity Sunday, and it was a joy to hear my friend Jonathan Rea and others on Radio 4 leading the Morning Service (later repeated on Radio Ulster with some old New Irish material taken from the archives. It took me back to the years I was involved in some of the events in the Waterfront with them and particularly the 10th Anniversary event when we explored the issue of creation and creativity looking at chapter 1 of Genesis. As part of it 3 of my faithful band of actors, Jim Allen, Colin Shearer and Sharon Morwood (now Thompson) delivered a dramatised version of the following poem by Stewart Henderson. Given that one of the set readings in the lectionary for this morning was Genesis 1 I thought it would be appropriate to post it.

Voice 1        When there was nothing, there was I 
                    Lighting volcanoes, stretching the sky 
                    Sketching the veins of an acorn leaf 
                    Painting the gloss on the tiger's teeth 

Voice 2        When there was nothing, I was there 
                    Buffing the buffalo, grooming the bear 
                    Curling the cobra in his coiled-up cave
                    Rippling the river and frothing the wave 

Voice 3        When there was nothing, there was Me 
                    Expanding the girth of the Redwood tree 
                    Moulding the moon whilst counting the bugs 
                    And no matter if you're squeamish 
                    But I even made the slug 

Voice 1        When there was nothing, just I AM 
                    Before I'd even offered you my punctured lamb 
                    I juggled all the planets, then equipped the frog 
                    With the energetic means to leap from log to bog 

Voice 2        When there was nothing there was I 
Voice 3        When there was nothing, I was there 
Voice 1        When there was nothing, there were always three 
Voice 3        Spirit 
Voice 3        Son 
Voice 1        And Me

Shalom
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