Elemental

I was hewn from a burning, vaporous cloud

While it was still dawn,

Before the births of stars or constellations or galaxies,

When expanding nebulae, in their spinning,

Became the pillars holding up the structure of the universe.

I was suspended there in the magnificent emptiness,

A flicker in darkness,

Shadow from form,

Unintelligible and shapeless,

Until the Logos imbued all with meaning.

And I became, had reason to be.

Gobbled up in matter and wrapped in stardust,

I issued forth as the product of creation’s first words.

First caused, constrained in my liberation to transcend myself.

Dreaming I dreamt, and thinking I thought,

Passing from this to that to the other,

Filling time and cramming space

In this finite replica of timeless limitlessness.