The First Way of Saint Thomas Aquinas
The changed all around us is easy to see,
but unchanged by another no changed thing can be.
What is able to differ cannot be its own act;
it is but a potential for something else to make fact.
So can-change by a changer is made actual change
and thus is a series of changes arranged.
Suppose that the causes as a whole are all moved;
that's one change without changer, so impossible proved.
Every series of changers, in an unchanged cause ends,
and from that first mover those changes descend.
But a first cause of change by its causing unchanged --
to call this thing 'God' is not at all strange.
Things to Do with Poetry
To say the brilliant thing in one's peasant tongue
To nourish scholar's thought with substantial rice and bread
To make the simple truth to be by angels sung
To cast a tale enchanted for the living and the dead
To those who thirst for reason to give a quenching drink
To bury dead with honor and to comfort those who ache
To humble all the pedants and to make the asses think
To clean the airs and waters by exposing every fake
To clothe the naked dream in vestments both pure and plain
To harbor orphan wonders within a royal wall
To make the mundane holy and to make all madness sane
To give the blind a vision and make deaf ears hear a call
To whisper in the darkness of the dawning of the light
To deepen simple prayer with the wisdom of the years
To warn the lazy afternoon of coming night
To temper fears with hope, and hope with fears
To wander through the mazes found in mind and heart
To capture unknown concepts by allusion and by sign
To find the soul in need and to take its part
To slay the evil notion with an aphoristic line
To those who are imprisoned to give truth that sets them free
To give to wonder breadth and to reason span
To form a quiet refuge where one and all can flee
To be the living voice and the memory of man
