The Reverend on Natural Theology—Ben Myers

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by Ben Myers

Seeing God in nature do
you see Him crucified? The rabbit ripped
by dogs, its guts strewn across a crew-
cut field, the hide left wet where it was stripped?
Driving through countryside you sometimes see
a line of coyote pelts hung from barbed fence,
flapped by high wind, bothered with flies and flea
infested, bullet holes in all the skins.
Do you then read the Book of Nature’s red
ink dribbled down the posts? Consider all
the world’s wide gore, the white-tailed deer that’s spread
across the road, the earth’s unlapped offal.
Everything broken must be broken again.
I will make you fissures of men.

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From Black Sunday: Dust Bowl Sonnets (Lamar University Literary Press, 2019)

Benjamin Myers is the director of OBU's Great Books Honors Program. He is the author of four books of poetry and two books of nonfiction, and he was the 2015-2016 poet laureate of the state of Oklahoma. His poems have appeared in The Yale Review, Image, The Christian Century, Rattle, and many other widely-circulated journals, and he has written essays for many prominent outlets, including First Things, The American Conservative, and The Gospel Coalition. Dr. Myers is a member of Chandler First Baptist Church, where he teaches adult Bible study and serves as a deacon.

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash