Adam’s Days

Adam’s Days
by Judith Huang

God put me in a garden
And Oh, it was so nice!
He walked past in the grass
And it sufficed!

Look, everything was new!
The tree, the dew -
And my wonderful companions
A giant petting zoo!

And O, my tongue was loosed
Each time I opened eyes
Every single time
I raised mine to the skies

This was the sky
I don’t know how to say it -
It was one whole -
I couldn’t but obey it -

O children, children
You do not understand
There’s nothing lame or boring
About this time!

Get to the good part?
You’re always clamoring!
No! This was the good part -
the only amor-ing!

O children, you don’t know
What I mean by truly tired
Tired – truly, deeply,
and desired.

O that small breath
between a rib extending
Beneath a sun
The grief of losing bearing -

Grief in the garden?
Theologically unsound!
But how else should I put it?
I fell on ground

And slept and slept for days
As though my God
had struck me down!
And when I woke, my God!

My wedding dawned!
Who ravishes at once
the gauze between two tombs?
O death, O death

I tasted you right then -
A foretaste of the bitter
Tasted then -
O Eve -

O Eve of me, O Eve, O Eve -
O Eve of day!
O Eve!
O Eve of night’s delight!

How can it be?
I taste her fruit voluptuous
Voluptuous her fruit -
and feel, idolatry -

For who, O who
Seduces like your mum?
I’m explaining this so badly!
Here, hold up your palm -

Look how it fits in mine
A perfect glove?
No, it doesn’t fit exactly
but touch it: perfect love -

Embodied, for those
lovely, endless days -
She could convince me
O, to mend my ways -

Trouble was, I would
do anything -
Kill, be killed -
Couldn’t refuse one thing -

Is she not a goddess?
I’m getting soppy;
Yeah, those thorns are a bother, huh.
And watch it, Cain, till properly!

Listen to old Dad -
Cos he has things to say
Things you will want
To hear one future day

When hunting in the wild
wet orange rocks -
You’re startled by
Some strange Assyrian’s locks -

Or, sowing in your green
precarious fields,
You turn around
and fall into some well

Where some strange goddess’ song
Begins to swell
You don’t like girls?
Hah! Only time will tell

Where’s mum?
Well, I guess she’s still back in the cave?
She tells better stories?
O, forgave!

Yeah…..

Until she forgives your father
I’m afraid
We’ll just have to wander
here instead

What, I should bring her flowers?
O, what use!
A chicken, or a new wineskin’s
better use!

But she likes flowers?
Even if they die?
Well, you know what, li’l Abe?
I’ll give it a try -

Adam and Eve working after the fall

image source

The Birth of Eve

The Birth of Eve
by Judith Huang

You, and you alone
can lock the box
of my death -

You, and you alone
can put your mouth
to my breast -

You, and you alone
can part my lips
with your fingertips -

O God
O God
Adam is dead
O God Adam is dead
And there are only
blackened birds all here
Instead.

on the doors of Cathedral at Monreale, Sicily

image source

The Fall Of Man: Part 4 – Redemption

The Fall of Man: Part 1 – The Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Fall of Man: Part 2 – Truth or Consequences

The Fall of Man: Part 3 – Expelled with a Promise

Location: L’Abri Rochester

Cast: Judith, Shelley, Tony.

Plan A: Marriage, Not Polygamy

Not Ideal.

image source

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.” … Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her back to Jacob, and he went in to her. And Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. …Then Jacob… fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid. Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.

When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben [literally, 'See, a son']; for she said, “The LORD has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon [Literally, 'Heard']. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi [Literally, 'Attached']. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah [Literally, 'Praised']. Then she stopped bearing.

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.” Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her. Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan [Literally 'Judge']. And Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali [Literally, 'My Wrestling'].

When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife. And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad [Literally, 'Troop' or 'Fortune']. And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher [Literally, 'Happy'].

Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes,” And he lay with her that night. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar [Literally 'Hire']. Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun [Literally, 'Dwelling']. Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” So she called his name Joseph [Literally, 'He will add'], and said, “The LORD shall add to me another son.”

Genesis 29:29 – 30:24

It seems to me that when self-professed Christians who express nostalgia for a “golden age” world order somewhere in the distant past, who advocate for a return to “Old Testament morality”, they display a profound misunderstanding of genre. The passage above, for example, is a historical narrative (not Rankian History as we know it today, but rather history when history and literature were not too different from each other). History is not the same as Law: Genesis is descriptive of a certain society at a certain point in human history, and not a prescriptive recommendation for building the ideal society. Just because polygamy was present in the days of the patriarchs doesn’t mean that it made God happy – on the contrary, almost every instance in which polygamy occurs in the Old Testament ends in strife and division.

Full article at the Harvard Ichthus

Abe

Abe
by Judith Huang

After a year, Abe got sick of the place.
I don’t know about you, he’d say,
But the people around here talk funny.
And sure it’s unclaimed land, but
I can see why it’s unclaimed – it’s
Deserted desert, that’s what it is.
It’s a caravan park, a shanty-town…
I’m more of city person, as you know.
Buildings, proper sewage systems.
I guess it’s a country thing.
And it’s so inconvenient, everything.
Water is a long walk away,
And people get testy when
Water is a long walk away.
The weather decides to suck,
And boom, there goes your harvest.
It’s ridiculous. Sure, you get some
Great views, but when you’re staring
At mountains, and more mountains
There’s, you know, diminishing returns.

They say things will get better
Sort of get used to the pace of life
Sort things out with the neighbours, you know,
This bit is my land and that bit
To the left is yours, draw boundaries,
Mend fences, that sort of thing.
It just takes a while to adjust, right?

There he is again, using my well.
God, why did I move here?
What the hell?

-

photo by Scott Thistle Thwait Photography

A family moved out of the city to Perth, Australia, and their pastor said to them as he blessed them at the airport, saying: You are like Abraham, called out to the promised land, and we send you out with our blessing.

For those of you who remember, the promised land at the time was a bloody desert, and Abraham was impotent or Sarah was barren, or both, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t even like living in a cultural desert, not to mention an actual desert desert.

But they went. And Oh, it was hard! But we must never turn to Egypt, mistaking it again for Eden. We must never pimp out our wives, must never worship their idols, must never despair, must never idolize our son, must never give up on our daughters, must never look back at the cities now going up in flame, lest we melt into a flood of tears or turn into a pillar of salt.

Oh God you blessed Abraham – bless also this family.

-

The Promised Land no longer exists, not in the Singapore Dream, not in the American Dream. We have wrecked it, wrecked it all. There is no Garden of Eden on Earth, at least not right now. But I have slowly come to love tiny facets of the Australian desert – and I wrote this once to a friend

You know, there is nothing quite as moving as the different faces of our world. Can we help communing with places? I am so glad to think that the earth will not simply crumple up like a burnt crisp when God puts the world right, but rather that we will then witness the marriage of heaven and earth. Because this much beauty – the pointing, pointed beauty of your glaciers and my peculiar Western Australian light – this beauty could not bear being destroyed by its Creator. I love the world, G -  . It is a magnificent place to live. I love my body, especially when running and I can feel it humming along at what It ought to do. I love my mind, the way it reaches into my thoughtcloud and links two things together, the whirring beauty of it when stimulated to its peak, the wild surmise when it encounters God in the beautiful idea. Can you believe, G – , that on top of these wonderful things we have been equipped, blessed with, that there is more? That we are, apparently, weirdly enough, perfectible? I shudder to think what a perfect world will look like. Perhaps only then will great art not mean heartbreak.

The Fall of Man: Part 1

Thank you Tony!

Click here for Part 2!

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leaving eden

by Judith Huang

because when you held my hand
it was by the wrist,
so i could never let you go -
and so,
we would walk on,
together forever,
a man, a woman,
and my poor arm
the snake,
dripping venom
into the sand
for every step we take -

(2003)