JAMES WELDON JOHNSON'S 

CREATION ACCOUNT 

 Poem for Today - February 19, 2014
Continuing Black History Month

"The Creation"

          And God stepped out on space,

          And he looked around and said:

          I'm lonely -

          I'll make me a world.

          And far as the eye of God could see 5

          Darkness covered everything,

          Blacker than a hundred midnights

          Down in a cypress swamp.

           Then God smiled,

          And the light broke, 10

          And the darkness rolled up on one side,

          And the light stood shining on the other,

          And God said: That's good!

          Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,

          And God rolled the light around in his hands 15

          Until he made the sun;

          And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

          And the light that was left from making the sun

          God gathered it up in a shining ball

          And flung it against the darkness, 20

          Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

          Then down between

          The darkness and the light

          He hurled the world;

           And God said: That's good! 25

           The God himself stepped down -

           And the sun was on his right hand,

          And the moon was on his left;

          The stars were clustered about his head,

          And the earth was under his feet. 30

          And God walked, and where he trod

          His footsteps hollowed the valleys out

          And bulged the mountains up.

          Then he stopped and looked and saw

          That the earth was hot and barren. 35

          So God stepped over to the edge of the world

          And he spat out the seven seas -

          He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed -

          He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled -

          And the waters above the earth came down, 40

          The cooling waters came down.

          Then the green grass sprouted,

          And the little red flowers blossomed,

          The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,

          And the oak spread out his arms, 45

          The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,

          And the rivers ran down to the sea;

          And God smiled again,

           And the rainbow appeared,

          And curled itself around his shoulder. 50

          The God raised his arm and he waved his hand

          Over the sea and over the land,

          And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!

          And quicker than God could drop his hand,

          Fishes and fowls 55

           And beasts and birds

          Swam the rivers and the seas,

          Roamed the forests and the woods,

          And split the air with their wings.

          And God said: That's good! 60

          Then God walked around,

          And God looked around

          On all that he had made.

          He looked at his sun,

          And he looked at his moon, 65

          And he looked at his little stars;

          He looked on his world

          With all its living things,

          And God said: I'm lonely still.

          Then God sat down - 70

          On the side of a hill where he could think;

          By a deep, wide river he sat down;

          With his head in his hands,

          God thought and thought,

          Till he thought: I'll make me a man! 75

          Up from the bed of the river

          God scooped the clay;

          And by the bank of the river

          He kneeled him down;

          And there the great God Almighty 80

          Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,

          Who flung the stars to the most far corner 
                            of the night,

          Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;

          This Great God,

          Like a mammy bending over her baby, 85

          Kneeled down in the dust

          Toiling over a lump of clay

          Till he shaped it in his own image;

          Then into it he blew the breath of life,

          And man became a living soul. 90

          Amen. Amen.

(from God's Trombones, 1927)

© James Weldon Johnson

From The Heath Anthology

 of American Literature,

Volume Two, Second

Edition, 1053-1055.

__________________________________________________

Here's my creation account from my book, Cries ....  But Silent

CREATION ACCOUNT

In  the beginning

all was God.

In the beginning

all else was silence,

all else was darkness.

And God burst

through the dam

of silence and darkness

with his word,

“Let there be light!”

And God’s power,

and God’s spirit

exploded into creation.

Molten lava,

red rivers of fire,

huge stones and planets

rolled down the dark hills

of space, down the empty

halls of the universe,

crashing, splashing,

noise and sound.

Creation had begun ,

bursting, splattering seed

into the empty holes

of barren time.

“Let there be life!”

And the fertile egg

of earth began.

And in time

the naked baby

came forth

crawling towards

the Father,

standing, falling

rising, trying

again and again

to stand up to the Father.

And gradually

it too learned

the words,

“Let there be light!”