wordsout by godfrey rust
The sailing of the ark  < 10 of 45



10

You're writing about marriage—there's a double irony
I know you'll smile at—you, the one-time model
     bachelor!But then

that it should be the issue that broke
you from your first church—that's a tougher one.

Of course the dogma puts half America
into spiritual no-man's land—Shouldn't's a poor sermon

for those who've vowed and failed, and try again;
in the bed they've made (if you'll excuse the metaphor) 

they have to find some way to lie. Whatever you write,
     Andrew,
I hope there'll be comfort "for our hardness of heart".

There's no Eden to go back to. The apple
has been eaten, from its thrown core

those trees have grown on whose fruit we have to live,
our only Sitz im Leben is in their shade.


for our hardness of heart cf Jesus’ teaching on adultery Mark 10:5.

Sitz im Leben A German theological term translatable as “life-setting”.