Last-minute Message for a Time Capsule...

To continue with yesterday's ending theme...

Last-Minute Message for a Time Capsule

By Philip Appleman

I have to tell you this, whoever you are:
that on one summer morning here, the ocean
pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
a south wind, bustling along the shore,
whipped the froth into little rainbows,
and a reckless gull swept down the beach
as if to fly were everything it needed.
I thought of your hovering saucers,
looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
so it wouldn't be lost forever --
that once upon a time we had
meadows here, and astonishing things,
swans and frogs and luna moths
and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
We could have had them still,
and welcomed you to earth, but
we also had the righteous ones
who worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.
When you go home to your shining galaxy,
say that what you learned
from this dead and barren place is
to beware the righteous ones.

from New and Selected Poems,1956-1996
University of Arkansas Press, 1996

Philip Appleman, a Foundation member, is also the author of six earlier books of poetry, three novels, and several nonfiction books. His third edition of the Norton Critical Edition of Darwin was published this year and he is editing a new edition on Malthus. He is married to playwright and poet Marjorie Appleman and is distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.--Steven Weinberg